Analysing and simulating electronic devices as antennas

Abstract

Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) is getting more and more interest with the ever-increasing adoption of electronic devices. EMC must be planned, calculated, simulated, and measured; this is necessary to ensure that the device can work in the environment of other devices and does not disturb other devices through undesired interference. In complex devices, simulation methods due to the large number of elements and complicated operations can be extremely costly and time consuming. We should consider how is it possible to reduce these costs, for example with simplifying our simulation terminology. This paper explains a general theory about using pre-measured EMC properties in simulation to predict how a complex system (containing many devices) will work. This theory is about how different radiated electromagnetic waves affect other devices. EMC standards have been developed to test and limit unintentional coupling to and from electronic devices (interference), but not developed to deal with more devices crowded in a smaller environment. If we handle the different devices as antennas, in the simulation environment we must not deal with their internal structure and operation (unless we need information of their internal structure). In this way, simulation time can be drastically reduced.