Comparison among emission and susceptibility reduction techniques for electromagnetic interference in digital integrated circuits

This paper presents a comparative study of susceptibility reduction techniques for electromagnetic interference (EMI) in digital integrated circuits (ICs). Both direct power injection (DPI) and very-fast transmission-line pulsing (VF-TLP) methods are used to inject interference into the substrate of a single test chip. This IC is built around six functionally identical cores, differing only by their EMI protection strategies (RC protection, isolated substrate, meshed power supply network) which were initially designed for low emission design rules. The ranking of three of these cores in terms of electromagnetic immunity is then compared with the one of their radiated emission, thanks to near-field scanning (NFS) measurements. This leads to the establishing of design guidelines for low EMI in digital ICs.