After two weeks in Shanghai and Beijing to promote MWJ China and EDI CON, immediately followed by a visit to this year’s NIWeek in Austin (and appearance as a guest panelist), the gas tank was running pretty low as the final leg of my summer marathon tour wrapped up in Denver for the final day of this year’s IEEE EMC conference. The last day of any show can seem a little slow, but I was determined to visit as many of our microwave peeps as possible and finish this round of company visits with a bang.

Ironically, the Beijing trip included a visit to an EMC conference sponsored by the Chinese equivalent of the IEEE known as the CES. The Microwave Journal team was invited to meet with the leadership of the Chinese Electrical Society (and EMC event organizers) to discuss our joint efforts to educate and promote our respective industries within China. Our meeting set the foundation for further collaboration between our organizations and will hopefully allow the Journal to extend its reach into some important networks throughout China.  

EMC and RF/microwaves could be considered first cousin technologies with many shared challenges and solutions. As a result, a number of companies associated with the microwave industry develop products for both applications/markets. Our readers and regular visitors to shows such as IMS or EuMW would find many familiar companies at the annual IEEE EMC conference. For instance, AR RF/Microwave Instrumentation was front and center to greet visitors with a commanding booth at the entrance of the exhibition hall. Other familiar exhibitors included Agilent, Amphenol, ARC Technologies, CPI, CST, Delcross, EMSCAN, ETS-Lindgren, Empower RF systems, EMSS (FEKO), Laird Technologies, Microwave Vision Group, Miteq, Rohde & Schwarz, TESEQ, Tektronix and Tru offering products such as shielding/absorbing materials, test equipment, high power broadband amplifiers, EM simulation software, probes and test chambers.

The EMC conference is the biggest event of the year for AR RF/Microwave Instrumentation and the company had plenty of products for wireless and immunity testing to highlight.  Multiple amplifier products were being featured including a series of amplifiers offered with 15, 50, 100 and 200 watt Class A linear power versions over an instantaneous BW from 0.7 to 6 GHz with very low harmonic distortion for demanding wideband EMC and wireless requirements. These units can be driven with as little as 1 mW and provides excellent flatness across the operating frequency band in addition to excellent noise figure. The company is also offering a re-vamped version of the company’s 80 MHz to 1 GHz amplifier series which is smaller and offers 100% VSWR protection. The company’s MT06000 MultiStar Multi-Tone Tester addresses RF Radiated Immunity by testing multiple frequencies (tones) at once, test times can be reduced by a factor proportional to the number of tones selected. The number of tones is only limited by the signal generator bandwidth (150 MHz) and the size of the amplifier used with the system . The MT06000 contains all the instruments needed to perform radiated immunity testing for IEC 61000-4-3 specification except the required amplifiers, antennas and directional couplers. Amplifiers can be sized and selected based on your required field levels and testing needs.

Empower RFwas among the companies featuring broadband and band specific solid state high power amplifier for defense, commercial, and industrial market applications. The company’s product lines incorporate state-of-the-art GaN, LDMOS, MOSFET, GaAsFET and bipolar device technologies to deliver state-of-the-art amplifiers that deliver high-performance power amplifiers in a truly impressive small form factor. The company was highlighting their class AB, multi-octave bandwidth (20 MHz to 1GHz) solid state amplifier (2162) that offers 1 kW of  CW power with 25% average PAE. The amplifier includes a built in control and monitoring system, with protection functions which preserve high availability. Remote management and diagnostics are via an embedded web server allowing network managed site status and control simply by connecting the unit’s Ethernet port to a LAN. Using a web browser and the unit’s IP address (IPV4, IPV6) allows ease of access with the benefit of multi-level security. The unit’s small size makes it especially attractive to EMC/EMI testing applications where testoperators need a mobile power source that can be placed on a cart and moved between different chambers.

 Rohde & Schwarzhas a broad range of solutions targeting EMC testing and thus had a number of products to demonstrate to visitors including their family of CISPR 16-1-1-compliant EMI test receivers developed to meet all civil and military standards for electromagnetic disturbance measurements. The company’s R&S ESU EMI test receivers offer maximum precision, standard compliant EMI measurements at truly impressive measurement speeds, the R&S ESR EMI test receivers covers the 10 Hz to 26.5 GHz frequency range and measures electromagnetic disturbances with the conventional stepped frequency scan or – at an extremely high speed – with an FFT-based time domain scan and the R&S ESCI EMI test receivers address compliance test requirements for all civil standards from 9 kHz to 3/7 GHz. R&S has also teamed up with AP Americas to offer shielding rooms that utilize pan-shielding constructions versus the traditional solid steel walls.

 Microwave Vision Group has formed a new EMC group which was launched just before the event and will be headquartered out of it San Diego office. The new entity will leverage MVG’s technical expertise to expand its offering to this market with anechoic chamber technology.

Agilent Technologies had multiple demo stands operating to show off their EMI test solutions including the N9038A MXE CISPR-compliant EMI receiver, which is also an X-Series signal analyzer that can diagnose EMI problems and evolve as technology changes. The MXE complements your knowledge with capabilities that will help designers identify what is really happening inside their devices. The Agilent demos included

• Full-compliance CISPR, MIL-STD and DO-160 EMI measurements made with the Agilent N9038A MXE EMI receiver and pre-compliance measurements made with the N6141A EMI measurement application on X-Series signal analyzers.
• Swept-tuned and real-time spectrum analysis up to 50GHz in one box, using the Agilent N9030A PXA signal analyzer with RTSA for diagnostics and pre-compliance studies (3 Hz to 3.6, 8.4, 13.6, 26.5, 43, 44, or 50 GHz; extend frequency to 110 GHz with Agilent's smart mixers and up to THz with other vendors' mixers).
• Network and impedance measurements, using the Agilent E5061B-3L5 5-Hz to 3-GHz ENA network analyzer to address the needs of designers of electronic components and circuits, from LF to RF.
• RF and microwave handheld test tools, which include the HSA handheld spectrum analyzer (7/13.6/20 GHz) and the FieldFox NA/SA combination analyzer (4/6.5/9/14/18/26.5 GHz).
• DDR4 pre-layout DQ/DQS length matching, using Agilent EEsof EDA Advanced Design System and EMPro 3-D EM simulation software.

In addition Heidi Barnes, technical expert, Agilent EEsof EDA was on hand to talk about the company’s software solutions for EMC/EMI design including SystemVue, ADS and the most recent release of EMPro 2013. Barnes also present a paper at the conference "Just How Good Is Your SI Simulator?" as part of the Global EMC and SI University series.