A Survey of Electromagnetic Interference and Noise Mechanisms in Electronic Components and Systems

With the ever increasing number of electronic devices in the home and workplace and the impressive increases in their functional complexity, it's not surprising that there has been a growing concern about how those devices interact. For those interactions which occur through free space via electromagnetic, Federal regulation was inevitable. 

As a consequence, in industries which produce such devices, awareness of interference and noise issues is reaching designers and decision makers with little expertise in electromagnetics or electronics. For example, in interconnection, traditionally an area dominated by mechanical designers, concerns for interference, higher performance, and noise have necessitated bringing such additional skills to bear. 

It is the purpose of this talk to selectively survey the field of interference and noise for those whose specialty is outside of the area of electromagnetics but who find that an acquaintance with it is a necessity of modern life. I will try to take a generally intuitive approach and deal in concepts rather than in mathematical detail. Obviously, we can consider only a limited part of such a large topic. In this extended abstract, I relate in some detail the topics covered in my talk and include some references which are useful to someone seeking further information.