The Future of EMC Testing is EMA3D® Cable
The EMC testing process without simulation is extremely time consuming and difficult. The workflow begins with designing your module and testing it at the component level and hoping it passes. Then it’s integrated into a platform where you have many different electronics packaged together, and you hope the whole assembly passes.
The problem with this approach is that when problems are found during testing, it is difficult to make the changes to fix them. if the prototype is already made when the problems are discovered, then there have already been countless hours of design time, meetings, and reviews that have taken place to get to that point. Determining a solution to the problem that is found means either finding a last-minute band-aid (adding cost and potentially weight) or having to create a whole new design and prototype (adding cost and schedule delays); every new fix needs a new prototype.
EMC problems are notoriously awful to deal with in these scenarios because they are known to raise the red flag at the last moment to notify the engineers that they must redesign everything. Finding an EMC problem late in the design process, whether it’s on a single module or once you integrate an entire system like a car, satellite, or an airplane, can be expensive and delay schedule.
EMA3D® Cable (now Ansys EMC Plus) provides the ability to do these kinds of integrations virtually rather than with hardware. By using EMA3D® Cable you can make changes to your designs virtually to see what works best and what is going to offer you the best route to compliance. For many years there was a very broad design guideline that was used by everyone, but with EMA3D® Cable you can tailor guidelines and requirements to be more specific to the application at hand. By using simulation, the ability to see if two things will work together is much easier because it can be virtually redesigned and retested in a short period of time if it does not work. Now instead of guessing we can use real PCB layouts, real cable routing, and real component data (when available) to estimate chances of success.
EMA3D® Cable provides the opportunity to skip the stage of worrying about if the prototype will or not work. By using this simulation tool one can sit down and perform the analysis to get a more concrete feeling of how much margin you have during your EMC testing before it’s too late. Stay on schedule and budget for your projects by Teaming Up With EMA® Today!
