2015 take-home examination: due Wednesday December 9

The exam questions are open ended. I want to see how you think your way through a problem.
Just because you cannot complete every question or do every question correctly does not concern
me. I want to see that you learned something and that you demonstrate it to me. You can always
ask me questions.
1. Fig 1 demonstrates the impact of the skin effect and the proximity effect.
Assume that the magnetic field is tangential to the surface of the conductor (x or x
direction) and assume for arguments sake that the plates are very wide and long so that the
system can be approximated as a 1D system in a Cartesian reference frame; note the
magnetic field can be pointing left or right depending on the nature of the problem. Amperes
law can be used to define the boundary conditions. Assume also that the time varying
displacement field is negligible therefore the displacement term in Amperes Law can be
neglected. The material parameters of interest are the electrical conductivity and the relative
magnetic permeability. You can assume a vacuum on either side of the metallic plates.
a. Determine the current distribution J z ( z into the page) and skin depth in the upper
conductor as a function of position in the vertical y direction. Note the y shown in Fig 1
is the total width of the bus bar. The y axis points downwards. The distribution in the
lower conductor is a mirror image of the distribution in the upper conductor.
b. Compute the power loss per unit length in each conductor.
c. Determine the resistance per unit length for each conductor; you can assume a finite plate
width d for this calculation. The results using this approach should be fairly accurate so
long as the plate width is much larger than the combined height of the space between the
plates and the thickness of the plates.

Fig. 1 Description of geometry for Problem 1

2. A lumped voltage source with a frequency f is connected at a distance xs from the impedance
Zs, as shown in Fig. 2. A uniformly distributed constant electric and magnetic field appear
across the length of the line and have the same frequency as the lumped voltage source.
Compute the voltage across ZL in the frequency domain and state any assumptions that you
are making. You may find Chapter 7 of the following reference useful: F. M. Tesche, M. V.
Ianoz, T. Karlsson, EMC Analysis Methods and Computational Models, Wiley and Sons,
1997, ISBN 0-471-15573-X, TK7867.2 .T47 1997X.

Fig 2 Distributed source and a lumped source at an arbitrary position

3. A contactor that feeds a relay coil is known to be a source of electromagnetic radiation and is
shown in Fig. 3 (refer to the book by Ott if you need more information).

Fig. 3 Circuit of contactor in series with a relay coil

The switch S in its off-state is represented by a capacitor of about 10 pF in its fully open
state. You can assume this capacitor is small enough and can thus be neglected in analyzing
the temporal evolution of the contact voltage Vc. The contact separation distance at its
maximum distance is 1 cm. The switch properties can be modelled as follows starting at time
zero:
1. If the contacts are opened the voltage Vc will rise until it hits the arc characteristic
breakdown voltage curve. You can assume that this line is straight. Once breakdown
occurs, the voltage across the contact collapses and the interelectrode gap can be
modelled as a diode in series with a voltage source with a value equal to the arc

minimum voltage. You can add a small series resistor say 100 mohms if you wish.
Once the current through the contacts decreases say below 100 mA you can replace
the series voltage source and resistor by a voltage source with a value of say 200 V.
The exact value is not important.
2. If the contacts are opened at a time when the arc characteristics are no longer valid
you can approximate the breakdown voltage as a linear fit to the glow discharge curve
passing through the arc glow breakpoint. Once the glow discharge is initiated you can
model the glow discharge as a diode in series with a voltage source having a value
which is equal to the minimum glow discharge voltage. Again you can add a small
resistance in series. Once the current through the contacts decreases say below 10 mA
you can replace the series voltage source and resistor by a voltage source with a value
of say 1000 V. The exact value is not important.
Note, the models I am using here are approximate and do not account for the detailed plasma
dynamics which are beyond the scope of this course. You may have to play with some values
to replicate, in an approximate sense, the results in the book.
The slope of the arc characteristic curve in volts per plate separation distance can be
converted into volts per time characteristic using the following information; the slope of the
arc characteristic curve is 1 V/s if the plate separation distance scale is converted into a time
scale, assuming a specific value of contact separation velocity.

Fig. 4 Contact voltage as a function of interelectrode spacing

You can assume that the coil has an inductance of 40 mH and an interwinding capacitance of
0.1 nF. The coil resistance is about 24 and the dc supply voltage is 24 V. The resultant
waveform once the contacts separate is shown in Fig. 5.

Using a combination of analysis and simulation, prove that the expected waveform looks
similar to the waveform in Fig 5. Then estimate from your simulations, using some form of
post-processing, which frequencies are problematic in terms of emi if magnetic coupling to
other circuits is of concern: you may look at this problem in terms of two current meshes and
that you are making measurements in the far field at some distance k from the contactor/coil
system. You can assign areas with variable names to each mesh loop and make some
approximations. The results should be semi-qualitative in nature but you should show what
steps you took.

Fig. 5 Representative waveform for the contact voltage when the plates begin separating
4. This problem is concerned with the crosstalk between two parallel traces on a PCB. Consider
the case of two weakly coupled printed circuit board traces which are located parallel to each
other (refer to Fig. 6).
a) For line lengths of 5 cm, what is the maximum frequency under which the low-frequency
coupling approximation is valid?
b) Using the weak coupling approximation (Fig. 7), derive the expressions for the crosstalk voltages Va and Vb as a function of impedances Za, Zb, ZS, ZL, voltage source VS and
mutual capacitance and inductance Co and M respectively.
c) Express cross-talk voltages Va and Vb in terms of the capacitive and inductive response
coefficients kc and km defined as follows:

kc =

Co Z a Z b Z L
(Z a + Z b )(Z S + Z L )

km =

M
(Z a + Z b )(Z S + Z L )

d) As a numerical example, assume that the overall PCB trace lengths are L=5 cm, the edgeto-edge conductor separation is d=0.5 cm, the conductor widths are w=0.2 cm and the
dielectric substrate thickness is t=0.1 cm. The relative permittivity is =3.6. The
corresponding mutual inductance and capacitance determined numerically are given by

M=4.13110-10 H and Co=3.60710-14 F respectively. Assuming that all the load

impedances are matched to the characteristic impedance of a single trace (about 53.5 ),
calculate Va and Vb as a function of .
e) Discuss the influence of termination impedances on inductive and capacitive couplings?

Fig. 6 Geometry of the two coupled lines for cross-talk estimation

Fig. 7 Circuit diagram for generalized weak coupling by both E and H fields.
5. Assume that two loops can be described by equivalent squares having different dimensions.
Using the method of partial inductances, (pictures and equation shown in Fig. 8), develop
expressions for L1, L2 and M for a coil system with arbitrary dimensions.

Note: c+D should be C+D in the equation above

Fig. 8 Calculation of inductances
6. You are to design an input common mode power filter (on a 120 V line) which has an
insertion loss of 60db at 10 kHz. The load can be assumed to appear as a 10 ohm across the
output terminals. You will have to make some assumptions regarding the line or network
impedance. (Schlicke book).
a. Design a filter that will meet the specifications and show all of your steps.
b. How would you implement this filter? Explain qualitatively what you would do.
7. Assume you have designed a filter such as the one shown in Fig 9. The filter has not been
optimized. Usually stage 1 and stage 2 are placed in a separately shielded cage so as to avoid
coupling between the two filters.
a. Establish the transfer function between the input and output voltage and assign
variables to all parasitics. Assume that the separate shielded cages have been
removed, that feedthrough capacitors are used to bring the signal into and out of
the shielded enclosure and that L1 is relatively large compared to the selfinductance of the loop. Hint, you may find it easier to formalize the problem in
terms of mesh circuits and to make assumptions about what can be neglected.
b. How would the transfer function change if each filter stage has its own shielded
enclosure and own feed through capacitors. You can make some educated guesses
about parasitics that have not been modeled.

Fig. 9 Cascaded emi filter

8. One means of reducing common mode noise is to introduce a balancing circuit. Show using
sketches and simple arguments how the circuit in Fig. 10 transforms an unbalanced circuit
into a balanced circuit. Treat this problem as two transmission lines with characteristic
impedances Z and Z/2. The lines are considered lossless and there are no reflections. Also
comment on the need for the ferrite core.

Fig. 10 Impedance matching device