Simulating RF Desense And Electromagnetic Interference In Electronic Devices

It is a universal experience of modern life: You’re in an area of sufficient cellular signal, but the internet connection is degraded. A Bluetooth link is dropped even though the device battery is fully charged. The touchscreen of a device is unresponsive for no apparent reason.

Though the causes of such scenarios can be myriad, a common reason for degraded performance is when one part of an electronic device interferes with the performance of another part of the same device. It is easy to see how this can occur in modern electronics; it is common to include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), and cellular functions on devices that in another era would remain as separate devices. Further, devices’ wired cable connections are expected to support high data rates and carry increasingly higher power. The clock frequency of data rate transmission and its harmonics may extend into the same band as radio frequency (RF) receivers in the device. Manufacturers that include a cable connection have little control over the behavior of another device that users may connect to their own device.