View These Books and Articles on Electromagnetic Field Design
Books by Ralph
Grounding and Shielding: Circuits and Interference, Sixth Edition
Applies basic field behavior in circuit design and demonstrates how it relates to grounding and shielding requirements and techniques in circuit design.
This book connects the fundamentals of electromagnetic theory to the problems of interference in all types of electronic design. The text covers power distribution in facilities, mixing of analog and digital circuitry, circuit board layout at high clock rates, and meeting radiation and susceptibility standards. The author examines the grounding and shielding requirements and techniques in circuit design and applies basic physics to circuit behavior.
Includes new material on vias and field control, capacitors as transmission lines, first energy sources, and high-speed designs using boards with only two layers
Demonstrates how circuit geometry controls performance from dc to gigahertz
Examines the use of multishielded transformers in clean-power installations
Provides effective techniques for handling noise problems in analog and digital circuits
Discusses how to use conductor geometry to improve performance, limit radiation, and reduce susceptibility to all types of hardware and systems
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Fast Circuit Boards
An essential guide to modern circuit board design based on simple physics and practical applications.
The fundamentals taught in circuit theory were never intended to work above a few megahertz, let alone at a gigahertz. While electronics is grounded in physics, most engineers’ education in this area is too general and mathematical to be easily applied to the problem of high-speed circuits. Left to their own devices, many engineers produce layouts that require expensive revisions in order to finally meet specifications.
Properly explains the problems of fast logic and the appropriate tools
Applies basic principles of physics to the art of laying out circuit boards
Simplifies essential concepts scaled up to the gigahertz level, saving time, money, and the need for revisions
Goes beyond circuit theory to provide a deep, intuitive understanding of the mechanisms at work
Demonstrates energy management's role in board design through step function-focused transmission line techniques
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Digital Circuit Boards
A unique, practical approach to the design of high-speed digital circuit boards.
The demand for ever-faster digital circuit designs is beginning to render the circuit theory used by engineers ineffective. Digital Circuit Boards presents an alternative to the circuit theory approach, emphasizing energy flow rather than just signal interconnection to explain logic circuit behavior.
The book shows how treating design in terms of transmission lines will ensure that the logic will function, addressing both storage and movement of electrical energy on these lines. It covers transmission lines in all forms to illustrate how trace geometry defines where the signals can travel, then goes on to examine transmission lines as energy sources, the true nature of decoupling, types of resonances, ground bounce, cross talk, and more.
Reviews in simple terms the basic physics necessary to understand fast logic design
Debunks the idea that electrical conductors carry power and signals, showing that signal travels in the spaces, not the traces, of circuit boards
Explains logic circuit behavior through real-time analysis involving the fields and waves that carry signal and energy
Provides new information on how ground/power planes work
Outlines a software program for solving energy flow in complex networks
Purchase Digital Circuit Boards
Articles by Ralph
Limiting Radiation from Logic
Circuit Boards.
Once energy leaves a controlled path, the chances are it will cause interference and radiate from board edges. The energy that flows on a logic circuit board leaves as heat and/or electromagnetic radiation. As clock rates have risen, radiation has become more of an issue. The logic voltage levels we view are at the endpoints of transmission lines. To move logic signals we need to understand how nature moves energy. There are no energy meters, so we must rely on theory to understand how to limit radiation. This is the same theory that governs all electrical behavior. The control of radiation is not complicated but it is different than circuit theory. 12 October 2018. At Printed Circuit Design and Fab.
Maxwell and Transmission Lines
The famous mathematician can guide our understanding of electrical signals. Maxwell's famous equations describing electricity were published in 1868. Many historians feel this is the greatest contribution ever made to science. Maxwell had none of the components or instruments we know today. The fact that these equations agree with relativity theory is even more amazing. These equations are field-based because that is the side of nature that could be observed. The genius was to express these field ideas as concise differential equations. 6 December 2018. At PCDandF.
What is Electronics
My definition of electronics is: The smooth flow of electromagnetic field energy in conducting structures to perform specific electrical tasks. This energy should not leave the circuit except at planned points. Note that a component is a conducting structure. May 3, 2018. electronics-related.com
Voltage - A Close Look
We measure voltage in fast circuits and we may not realize all the things that the voltage can represent. Until someone invents an energy meter, voltage is the only observation tool we have. May 23, 2018. electronics-related.com
Voltage in the GHz World
Understand what is happening to the energy moving around in a circuit board. I want to challenge your understanding of electricity. My intentions are honorable. Technology is asking us to move more and more data, which in turn requires the use of more and more bandwidth. The tools we use have evolved from circuit theory, where we were very comfortable using lumped parameter models. Today, the interconnecting structures on logic circuit boards are just as important as the components. How a board is laid out controls delays, radiation and bit rates. I feel the meaning of voltage when it involves fast logic needs to be given a closer look. 08 May 2018. At PCDandF.
The Layout of Fast Logic on Printed Circuit Boards
In PCB transmission lines, a correct design can render leakage negligible. There is a struggle going on related to building fast logic circuit boards. Designs fail because they radiate or will not function at the required clock rate. Explaining why one approach works and another fails brings out some strange explanations. Herein, we discuss this design problem using well-known principles. New science is not needed. New language is not needed. What will be said will probably surprise readers, however, as this area of electrical behavior is often poorly understood. 12 March 2018. At PCDandF.