MN EMC Event 2025 and ESDI Switching Converter Presentation Sept 25, 2025

Another great MN EMC event! John Severson, PE, President and Principal Engineer, ESDI delivered a presentation entitled "EMI in Switching Power Converters – Issues, Insights and Tips from an Experienced Designer." 

Switching Power Converters are circuits designed to deliver or use energy using pulses of energy from the input source to the point of use. Obviously this includes DC/DC and AC/DC supplies, but also includes PWM motor drives, Battery Chargers, Wireless power transfer, Digital Isolators, and many others. The audience present were working with power levels ranging from milliwatts to kilowatts. 

Some kind of switching converter is included in most product designs today, and of course some are specifically dedicated to using or delivering power. This presentation addresses topics like noise sources, PWM spectra, many common problematic issues such as the behavior of real (non-ideal) components, Capacitance and Inductance vs. Capacitors and Inductors, Return Paths vs. Frequency, Isolation, Common Mode vs Normal (differential) mode currents, and various mitigations, filtering, and more. It's intended to improve a designer's perspective of Switching Converter EMI to hopefully make it more intuitive. 

Of course, ESDI can help you with your project - Design for EMI/EMC, Problematic testing results and troubleshooting (in our office/lab or at the EMI test lab).  Please contact us to discuss your specific project issues and how we can help you with them.