Beyond Power Management: Power Engineers Must Also Solve ESD, EMI, And RFI Problems

by Bill Laumeister, Maxim Integrated Products, San Jose, Calif., How2Power Today, Nov 21 2012

Focus:
The label “one size fits all” is rarely true, especially when applied to power management. Knowing that, we can focus attention on the 20%/80% rule to produce a well-designed power-management circuit. Following this principle, the power designer must consider all the potential disruptions to a steady flow of power and the various ways to mitigate them. This article focuses on the issues of RFI, EMI, EMS, and ESD. It discusses why a simple, off-the-shelf powerline filter may not adequately protect your applications and presents a more complex interface circuit that can be used to address an ESD, EMI, and RFI vulnerabilities in consumer and industrial applications. The author describes various component substitutions for this circuit that tailor it to various application needs. Various voltage- and current-limiting devices and risetime reducers are discussed. The article also points to free and low-cost software tools to help design lowpass filters, check capacitor self-resonance, and simulate circuits. The author also discusses the role of the power designer in addressing ESD, EMI, and RFI vulnerabilities, not only in the power management sections of a project, but across the entire product design.

What you’ll learn:

• How to protect power supplies and other circuitry against ESD, EMI, and RFI

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