November 11, 1997 Contact: Andrew Careaga Phone: (573) 341-4328 E-mail: [email protected]
SOFTWARE ADDRESSES ELECTROMAGNETIC PROBLEMS
ROLLA, Mo. -- Electrical engineers at the University of Missouri-Rolla -- working with Intel, Sun Microsystems and other computer companies -- are creating a software program to keep electromagnetic glitches out of the printed circuit boards used in computers, automotive parts and a broad array of other electronic products.
The three-year project, now in its second year, will result in "expert" software products that will help electronics makers meet federal standards on electromagnetic emissions. The expert system should also save circuit board makers a lot of time and money by allowing them to catch and fix problems before the circuit boards are manufactured.
"Computer systems are getting faster and faster, and the faster they get, the more likely they are to act as tiny radios and emit signals," says Dr. Todd Hubing, an associate professor of electrical engineering at UMR. "What we have to do is make them extremely inefficient radiators."
Hubing is one of four UMR electrical engineering researchers involved in the UMR EMI Expert System Consortium. EMI stands for electromagnetic interference.
The consortium is a three-year project between UMR and nine diverse businesses -- from equipment manufacturer Caterpillar to computer giants Intel and Sun Microsystems. The consortium's goal is to develop software to eliminate electromagnetic interference problems during the design phase of computer circuit boards. The project has more than $1 million in funding from consortium members.
In the early days of the personal computer, the circuit boards that ran the PCs often would interfere with the music of an office radio. That's because the circuit boards act as miniature radio stations and broadcast signals. The result is radio static.
This is one common example of how electronic noise can disrupt the operation of everyday products, and this problem, for the most part, has been taken care of by manufacturers of both PCs and radios. But new problems of electromagnetic interference are likely to arise as portable electronic products -- such as compact-disc players, laptop computers and hand-held computers - - become more commonplace. Signals from these gadgets could potentially wreak havoc on the computer systems of airplanes, automobiles and other complex electronic systems.
At UMR, the researchers test a variety of products in its Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) Laboratory, analyze the results, and write the algorithms that will be used to develop an expert software system that can be used by any circuit board designer. The UMR researchers then hand off their algorithms to the consortium's software partners. Those partners, in turn, develop computer-assisted design software products to be used by circuit board designers in the industry. All information is shared among the consortium's members, and all hardware companies in the consortium receive free evaluation copies of the early versions of the software.
When completed, these expert systems will diagnose circuit board designs, catch any potential problems, predict the extent of those problems, and recommend ways for designers to fix them.
"Through this consortium, we're developing software that does the same thing that an EMC engineer would do, looking at things the way a human would," Hubing says.
The need for an expert system is great because circuit board designers often know little about EMI concerns, Hubing says. There are few EMI engineers in the world, but many circuit board designers, he adds.
Already, the UMR EMI Expert System Consortium has developed prototype software that all partners in the consortium are evaluating.
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