Benchmarking CAE tools for EMC

A research project at the University of York has been reviewing the area of CAE tools to help design electronic equipment for Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC). There is little benchmarking information available for these tools, and it was felt that further benchmarking must be done. A plan for the benchmarking of realistically complex printed circuit boards (PCBs) using existing commercially available tools is discussed In addition to this, a more fundamental review of electromagnetic effects occurring on PCBs, and the methods used to account for these, has been carried out. Each method makes some degree of approximation, and this in turn imposes a restriction on the accuracy, application flexibility, and frequency range of the tool. Identifying and understanding these methods allows simplified PCB structures to be used, which aim to isolate a limited number of frequency and geometry dependent electromagnetic effects. These PCBs can then be used to validate various approximations