EMC Standards expands pool of expertise

~ Four new EMC and electronic design specialists join world-leading EMC resource ~

Leading electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) resource EMC Standards has expanded its team of electronic design consultants to increase the wealth of informational content and educational resources on the website. The four new associates will join global EMC expert Keith Armstrong in contributing material to EMC Standards, as well as helping engineers to solve EMC problems in a consulting capacity with Cherry Clough Consultants Ltd.

Cherry Clough’s four new associates are Andy Degraeve, Min Zhang, Chris Nicholas, and an additional associate to be named soon. Each expert has extensive experience in functional safety and EMI-immune electronics design, and a diverse range of specialties and expertise.

Andy Degraeve’s background includes 3D field solving and managing functional safety and other risks that could be caused by EMI. As well as general EMC design, he is currently specialising in promoting the teaching of good EMC design in academia and industry using a novel demonstration unit he has developed.

Min Zhang comes to EMC Standards with a proven track record of designing state-of-the art electronics and electric machines with minimal EMC issues, and designing for high-volume manufacture. He established the EMC capability for the Dyson Electric Vehicle project and now specialises in the rapidly-growing field of high-power converters for charging batteries and driving motors.

Chris Nicholas’s background includes a lot of low-noise radio and microwave communications design — including a 100W transmitter flying on a Galileo satellite — and design for high-volume manufacture. He set-up and ran an automotive EMC test facility for Ford UK and a military EMC test facility for Lockheed-Martin UK.

“The vision behind EMC Standards was to help engineers and installers to design, manufacture and install electronic equipment that meets functional specifications and EMC directives, in a quick and cost-effective manner,” explained Keith Armstrong.

“The new associates add to my 900+ customers and 31 years of experience in signal integrity (SI), power integrity (PI) and the control of electromagnetic emissions and immunity (EMC). Each brings unique expertise that will greatly enhance the free and paid-for content offered by EMC Standards, in turn helping more people to design equipment that reduces financial and safety risks, while improving uptime and competitiveness.”

The fourth, as-yet-unnamed, associate joining EMC Standards has a background in microwave design and testing to 50GHz, capacitive touch sensing and design for high-volume manufacture. Unusually for an EMC consultant, he is registered as a Functional Safety expert by TuV and is also an expert in the design of PCBs, mechanics and software.

EMC Standards’ expansion follows the company partnering with EMC UK to bring back the UK’s only independent EMC exhibition, EMC and Compliance International. The show ran virtually in May 2021, with attendees having ongoing access to valuable resources from the event until January 1 2022. The show is currently set to return at Newbury Racecourse in May 2022, with attendee and exhibitor registration open now.