Simple modeling method of EMI simulation for PCB

Abstract

This paper proposes simple simulation modeling method of Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) and predicting potential risk of EMI radiation by specific noise source focused on Printed Circuit Board (PCB). Electromagnetic Simulation (EM) is commonly used to accurately determine the root cause of EMI problems on a PCB. The drawback of EM simulation is that it sometimes requires prohibitively large computing resources. So more efficient simulation methods are required to reduce simulation cost (time and required computing hardware resource). Simplifying EM models is one idea but a simplistic model loses accuracy and sometimes cannot reproduce the actual EMI problem. So striking a balance of accuracy and speed is imperative. Here we propose an idea that models the potential return path of signal lines from noise sources, including the Power Delivery Network (PDN). This method achieves cost-effective simulation with reasonable accuracy. This is validated by measurement using EMI scanner system and the result demonstrates reasonable correlation between simulation and measurement.