As in the preceding years, the Symposium has been organized by the Communication Technology Laboratory of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich under the auspices of Mr. F. Rosenberg, Swisscom. Prof. Dr. P. Leuthold and Dr. G. Meyer acted again as symposium president and symposium chairman, respectively. The technical program committee was chaired by Dr. F. Tesche (Dallas, USA).
A number of international and national professional organizations were
cooperating, e.g. ITU, IEEE and URSI. As in the past URSI has sponsored
again the participation of young scientists.
A total of 129 carefully selected technical papers were presented in
18 sessions devoted to: protection and mitigation, EMC management, bio-electromagnetic
interactions, ESD and fast transients, EMC in extended systems I and II,
antenna calibration for EMC testing, transients, board and chip-level EMC
I and II, measurements technology I and II, power system EMC, numerical
methods, transmission lines, EMC innovation, lightning physics and effects
as well as EMC test chambers.
The sessions covered virtually all EMC "hot" topics and reviewed the current status as well as future trends of EMC technology. The full text of the presentations has been made available in the symposium proceedings comprising 692 pages [1]. An insight into the work of URSI Commission E was offered by open meetings dealing with the progress in the different working groups and identifying outstanding topics and new lines of future research.
As in previous symposia the program did not exclusively address experts. An introduction to EMC technology for newcomers was offered by two tutorial lectures and four workshops. Once again, a number of national and international organizations used the opportunity of the symposium to held open and closed meetings in coordination with EMC Zurich. In the open meeting on the ESPRIT Project ESDEM (electrostatic discharge protection design methodology) which belongs to the European Union Information Technology R&D Program, an overview was given of the state of the art, future requirements and development trends with respect to the design of ESD structures considering submicron MOS processes. Standardized exposure systems are essential for international research projects on biological effects in electromagnetic fields. The aim of the open meeting of the COST Action 244bis (European Cooperation in the field of Scientific and Technical Research), Biomedical Effects of Electromagnetic Fields, was to discuss methods and quality issues of exposure systems and their dosimetry. A further open meeting was organized by the IARU (International Amateur Radio Union) on EMC problems experienced and caused by radio amateurs. The contributions of these joint events have been made available in the 254-page supplement to the symposium proceedings [2].
Centres of gravity of this symposium have been the field of EMC testing with five sessions and free workshops devoted to this area. Better defined and simpler test methods, with reduced measurement uncertainty, could significantly reduce the cost of design and testing of the final product. EMC in extended systems is a challenge for management, modelling and testing. More than two sessions have dealt with this area. Extended systems are either physically large systems compared to the wavelength, or a complex combination of subsystems. It is difficult to point out general trends in the field of EMC but with the growing interest in theoretical models and numerical methods, the role of computers is becoming more and more important. Also with the trends to higher integration and to microsystems EMC models and tools for MMCs, microsensors and micromachines are gaining attention.
As usual, the Technical Exhibition has significantly contributed to the success of EMC Zurich'99 by demonstrating the fast conversion of theoretical knowledge into state-of-the-art hard- and software.
The traditional inquiry returned some very interesting suggestions for the next EMC Zurich Symposium which is planned for February 20 through 22, 2001. The call for papers of the 14th International Zurich Symposium and Technical Exhibition on EMC is scheduled for November 1999.
Plans for the 14th International Zurich Symposium and Technical Exhibition on Electromagnetic Compatibility in 2001 are proceeding on schedule. The Call for Papers has been issued, and we are happy to report that we are in the process of developing another outstanding technical program.
The digests from all of the previous EMC
Zurich Symposia (1975 - 1999) have been scanned, digitized and put
onto a double CD
ROM. The stored reference material is believed to be useful in future
research and development work.
Literature:
[1] Proceedings EMC Zurich '99,
IKT Zurich, February 1999, ISBN Nr. 3-9521199-3-8.
[2] Supplement to the Proceedings EMC Zurich '99,
IKT Zurich, February 1999, ISBN Nr. 3-9521199-4-6.
Dr. Gabriel Meyer gmeyer@nari.ee.ethz.ch