Hardware Podcasts

Why 90% of Electronics Fail EMC Tests and How to Fix It

OnTrack · 3 Feb 2026 · 48m · Episode 332

What this episode covers

Karen Burnham, chief engineer and founder of EMC United, explains why 60-90% of electronics fail EMC tests on the first attempt, citing counterintuitive antenna effects and misleading data sheet advice like ground plane splits. She details how requirements management is often mishandled, leading to over-specification, and discusses the limitations of current EMC simulation tools in predicting system-level behavior. Burnham advocates for early design reviews and low-cost pre-compliance tools like the TinySA to avoid costly respins, while noting that AI's role in EMC is currently limited by a lack of proprietary, correlated datasets.

Most relevant to

early-stage companies

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
EMC United, NASA Johnson Space Center, Texas Instruments
Tools
TinySA
Also
CISPR, FCC, Todd Hubing

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