Controlling noise and EMI

Around three or four years ago, PCB design expert Rick Hartley figured out the true cause of noise and EMI and as a result he changed his approach to teaching this subject. He changed his workshop presentations to a field-based lecture — addressing things like Maxwell’s equations or similarly complicated stuff is no longer necessary to understand that level of field behaviour.

Rick Hartley, principal, RHartley Enterprises, will be presenting a two-day workshop — Control of Noise, Signal Integrity & EMI in High Speed Circuits & Printed Circuit Boards — at the upcoming SMCBA 2015 conference. The event will be held at the Melbourne Park Function Centre, Melbourne, on 9-10 September.

Knowing how to design circuit boards to contain and control energy (fields) and knowing how to mitigate and control the effects of high-speed devices is the key to successful design of low noise circuits. This workshop will focus on the issues PCB designers and engineers need to know to prevent signal integrity, EMI, crosstalk and grounding problems in high-speed digital and mixed signal designs.

Hartley’s workshop is not just about signal integrity, it covers all aspects of noise control, including SI and EMC, as well as crosstalk and multiple other areas.  He will simply explain where energy truly resides in a PC board (something that 95% of engineers have never heard before) and how we need to design because of that, to prevent problems.

Rick Hartley was senior principal engineer at L-3 Communication, Avionics Systems and he is the principal of RHartley Enterprises, through which he consults and teaches internationally. Hartley’s focus is on the correct design of PC boards to prevent and solve problems. He has consulted with major corporations in the US, Australia, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, China, Japan, England, France, Spain and Germany.

All attendees will receive a hard copy of the course notes and a soft copy in colour for future reference when designing high-speed circuits and printed circuit boards.

Please contact Andrew Pollock at the SMCBA (pollocka@smcba.asn.au) or phone 03 9571 2200 for details on Rick’s upcoming workshops in Australia and New Zealand.