Wide bandgap (WBG) semiconductor devices are becoming increasing popular in power electronics applications. However, WBG semiconductor devices generate a substantial amount of conducted electromagnetic interference (EMI) compared to silicon (Si) devices due to their ability to operate at higher switching frequencies, higher operating voltages and faster slew rates. This thesis explores and analyzes EMI mitigation techniques that can be applied to a power module architecture at the packaging level. In this thesis, the EMI footprint of four different module architectures is measured experimentally. A time domain LTspice simulation model of the experimental test setup is then built. The common mode (CM) EMI emissions that escape the baseplate of the module into the converter is then examined through the simulation. The simulation is used to explore the CM noise footprint of eight additional module architectures that were found in literature. The EMI trends and the underlying mitigation principle for the twelve modules is explained by highlighting key differences in the architectures using common mode equivalent modelling and substitution and superposition theorem. The work aims to help future module designers by not only comparing the EMI performance of the majority of module architectures available in literature but by also providing an analysis methodology that can be used to understand the EMI behavior of any new module architecture that has not been discussed. Although silicon carbide (SiC) modules are used for this study, the results are applicable for any WBG device. / M.S. / As society moves towards the electric grid of the future, there have been increasing calls for high efficiency, high power density, and low electromagnetic interference (EMI) power electronic converters. EMI is a big problem when using wide-bandgap (WBG) devices as these devices can switch very quickly and handle higher voltages when compared to silicon devices. In this study, ways to reduce EMI in a WBG power module through twelve different types of packaging are explored. Four WBG power modules are designed and fabricated in the lab, whereas a simulation model was created to study the EMI behavior of the remaining eight power module. The EMI behavior of these modules is explained using common mode (CM) equivalent modeling and substitution and superposition theorem. This study is important because WBG devices are becoming more and more popular in power electronic applications. The author hopes the findings and analysis presented in this paper can help future module designers reduce the EMI footprint of modules they design.

Thesis (MScEng (Electrical and Electronic Engineering))--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / Conventional immunity tests are both time consuming and costly. There is thus a reasonable interest in relatively quick, but accurate and cost effective, in-house pre-compliance test techniques within an engineering design-house. This thesis provides information on the equivalence between in-house and conventional immunity test techniques. Three techniques were evaluated, namely: 1. E-field radiation with a log periodic antenna (conventional test technique); 2 E-field radiation with an inhouse designed and constructed modified TEM cell (in-house test technique); 3. Current injection using a complete off the shelf EMCO current probe device (in-house test technique). After the transfer data of the EMCO probe was verified, the modified TEM cell design, construction and equivalent measurement tests were performed. These tests revealed that within the respective bandwidth of interest, the devices produced results that are equivalent to each other within 0.9dB. Hence equivalence between in-house and conventional test techniques is possible.

Diariamente uma batalha de grandes dimensões é travada em cidades espalhadas por todo o Brasil envolvendo, de um lado, milhares de estações de radiodifusão que operam clandestinamente (Rádios Piratas) e, de outro, órgãos responsáveis pela fiscalização e repressão da atividade ilegal. Os equipamentos irregularmente instalados, apreendidos nessas estações, são enviados aos laboratórios da criminalística para que sejam efetuados exames periciais, cumprindo o rito legal. Neste trabalho são abordados os aspectos forenses e periciais relativos ao tema realizando-se ainda uma análise técnica dos transmissores apreendidos pela Polícia Federal na Região Metropolitana de São Paulo quanto às suas características construtivas, potência e frequência permitindo uma avaliação quanto à potencialidade lesiva destes equipamentos, tomando como base informações extraídas de seiscentos e sessenta exames periciais do Departamento de Polícia Federal realizados pelo autor e por outros peritos criminais federais entre os anos de 2008 e 2011. / Daily, a battle of great proportions is engaged in cities throughout the country involving, on one hand, thousands of broadcasting stations illegally installed (Pirate Radios), and on the other, public entities in charge of monitoring and of the prosecution of such illegal activities. Improperly installed equipment are seized in these stations and sent to Criminalistics Laboratories of the Forensic Institutes for examination, thus fulfilling the legal requirements. The present dissertation deals with the forensic examination aspects of such seizures. The technical aspects of the transmission equipment arrested by the Brazilian Federal Police in the São Paulo Metropolitan Region were analyzed as to its various characteristics, such as workmanship involved, potency and frequency in order to evaluate among other things the potential damage caused by such equipment. The study was based on information obtained from six hundred and sixty forensic examination reports issued by the Forensic Examiners of the Brazilian Federal Police Department, including reports written by the author, between the years of 2008 through 2011.

Diariamente uma batalha de grandes dimensões é travada em cidades espalhadas por todo o Brasil envolvendo, de um lado, milhares de estações de radiodifusão que operam clandestinamente (Rádios Piratas) e, de outro, órgãos responsáveis pela fiscalização e repressão da atividade ilegal. Os equipamentos irregularmente instalados, apreendidos nessas estações, são enviados aos laboratórios da criminalística para que sejam efetuados exames periciais, cumprindo o rito legal. Neste trabalho são abordados os aspectos forenses e periciais relativos ao tema realizando-se ainda uma análise técnica dos transmissores apreendidos pela Polícia Federal na Região Metropolitana de São Paulo quanto às suas características construtivas, potência e frequência permitindo uma avaliação quanto à potencialidade lesiva destes equipamentos, tomando como base informações extraídas de seiscentos e sessenta exames periciais do Departamento de Polícia Federal realizados pelo autor e por outros peritos criminais federais entre os anos de 2008 e 2011. / Daily, a battle of great proportions is engaged in cities throughout the country involving, on one hand, thousands of broadcasting stations illegally installed (Pirate Radios), and on the other, public entities in charge of monitoring and of the prosecution of such illegal activities. Improperly installed equipment are seized in these stations and sent to Criminalistics Laboratories of the Forensic Institutes for examination, thus fulfilling the legal requirements. The present dissertation deals with the forensic examination aspects of such seizures. The technical aspects of the transmission equipment arrested by the Brazilian Federal Police in the São Paulo Metropolitan Region were analyzed as to its various characteristics, such as workmanship involved, potency and frequency in order to evaluate among other things the potential damage caused by such equipment. The study was based on information obtained from six hundred and sixty forensic examination reports issued by the Forensic Examiners of the Brazilian Federal Police Department, including reports written by the author, between the years of 2008 through 2011.

In this thesis, determination of the shielding effectiveness of a rectangular shielding box with apertures on its walls by using electromagnetic topology (EMT) technique based on Baum-Liu-Tesche (BLT) equation is presented. The presented technique is applied to determine the field penetration into various rectangular shielding boxes with different sizes and aperture dimensions. An HP branded computer case is also analysed as a rectangular shielding box with a CD driver slot as an aperture. Results on electromagnetic field penetration through the apertures into the boxes at different frequencies are obtained by using the presented method and compared with the results obtained by using CST MICROWAVE STUDIO&reg / software simulation.

With the trends of fast edge rates, high clock frequencies, and low voltage levels for the high-speed digital computer systems, the ground bounce noise (GBN) or simultaneously switching noise (SSN) on the power/ground planes is becoming one of the major challenges for designing the high-speed circuits. In order to analyze the impact of the GBN on signal integrity (SI) and electromagnetic interference (EMI), an accurate and efficient modeling approach that considers the active devices and passive interconnects is required. This thesis focuses on two points. One is developing modeling approaches for analyzing the GBN effects, and the other is proposing solutions to reduce it. First, based on the FDTD algorithm several efficient modeling approaches including equivalent current-source method (ECSM), Kirchoff surface integral representation (KSIR), and slot-corrected 2D-FDTD are developed. After that, a power/ground-planes design for efficiently eliminating the GBN in high-speed digital circuits is proposed by using low-period coplanar electromagnetic bandgap (LPC-EBG) structure. Its extinctive behaviors of low radiation and broadband suppression of the GBN is demonstrated numerically and experimentally. Good agreements are seen.

This thesis focuses on the modeling and solutions of the simultaneous switching noise (SSN) problems in the power delivery networks (PDN) of high-speed digital circuit packages. An efficient numerical approach based on two-dimension (2D) finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method combined with the lumped circuit model of the interconnection is proposed to model the PDN of a package and PCB. Based on this approach, the mechanism of noise coupling between package and PCB can be analyzed. In addition, a novel photonic crystal power layer (PCPL) design for the PDN of the package or PCB is proposed to suppress the SSN. The periodic High-Dk material is embedded into the substrate layer between the power and ground planes. Both modeling and measurement demonstrate the PCPL can form a wide stopband well with excellent suppression of the SSN propagation in the substrate and the corresponding electromagnetic interference (EMI).

Processing of microwave signals in electrical domain introduces many difficulties especially when the frequency of the signal is increased beyond several GHz. Electromagnetic interference (EMI) and frequency depended losses can be given as examples to these difficulties. Photonic processing of microwave signals, however, is immune to these problems since optical components such as fiber cables, lasers, optical modulators and photodetectors are both immune to EMI and have wide bandwidths. This thesis deals with down conversion of a microwave signal using a Mach-Zender modulator and filtering unwanted harmonics using a photonic filter.

We have investigated, in various multiple senses, the “capacity” of several models of erasure networks. The defining characteristic of a memoryless erasure network is that each channel between any two nodes is an independent erasure channel. The models that we explore differ in the absence or presence of interference at either the transmitters, the receivers, or both; and in the availability of feedback at the transmitters. The crux of this work involves the investigation and analysis of several different performance measures for these networks: traditional information capacity (including multicast capacity and feeback capacity), secrecy capacity, and transport capacity. / text

The electromagnetic wave absorption characteristics of composite cement-based building material have attracted much interest in recent times. Researchers have mainly focused on the 2 GHz to 12 GHz frequency range. Mobile and wireless communication systems use frequencies from 800 MHz upwards. The determination of characteristics such as reflection loss, absorption, attenuation and shielding effectiveness are crucial in the evaluation and development of these materials for the building industry. Absorption is an indication of how much of the EMW energy enters the material. Attenuation indicates how much of the absorbed energy is converted into other forms of energy by the material. Shielding effectiveness (SE) is a combination of reflection loss, attenuation and multiple internal reflections and attenuations. This research determined these characteristics by measuring the S11 and S21 parameters of the composite cement-based material in the GSM and WiFi frequency bands. The time domain gating function of a vector network analyser is applied to measure the reflection from the material. The data was then used to obtain the reflection and absorption losses in the frequency bands. The transmission loss was measured by placing the sample in the propagation path between two antennas. MnZn-ferrite and electrolytic manganese dioxide in powder form were evaluated as absorber material to increase the permeability of the cement-based material to improve absorption and attenuation capabilities to create a cost-effective practical electromagnetic wave absorber. The compound of the cement-based material was cement, sifted river sand and filler powder. The results achieved in the research showed the uniqueness of electrolytic manganese dioxide as filler in composite cement based material for electromagnetic wave shielding effectiveness improvement. The combined measurement techniques used in this research were uniquely used to determine the required electromagnetic wave absorption characteristics and shielding effectiveness of 10 dB was measured in the GSM850 and GSM900 frequency bands. / Dissertation (MEng)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering / unrestricted