503

INTERACTIONS BETWEEN AN INPUT EMI

FILTER AND A POWER SUPPLY

Stéphane Brehaut1, Jean-Charles Le Bunetel1, Didier Magnon1, Antoine Puzo2, Alfonso Santolaria3,
David González3, Javier Gago3, Josep Balcells3
1 2 3
Laboratoire de Micro-électronique de SAFT POWER SYSTEMS GROUP Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya,
puissance Chambray-Lès-Tours, France Electronics Engeenering Department,
Tours, France Terrassa, Spain
Email: stephane.brehaut@etu.univ-tours.fr

Abstract — In power electronic, the presence of filter is output filter into account. It takes the interactions
dictated by the EMI gabarit. So, the passive filters are between the filters and the power supply into account,
largely used in order to reduce the EMI pollution produce
by the power supply. However, there are interactions
too.
between the passive elements and the power supply. This To modify the propagation paths, we can act on the
paper present the different phenomena which create the layout of circuit [1]. If the ground plane is changed, we
many loops of EMI resonance. The resonances produce can decrease the parasitic capacitances. So we reduce
the peaks of pollution. On the resonance’s frequency, the the common mode disturbances. This method permit to
EMI pollution is largely above the gabarit.
decrease the size of the filter.
An other method is to act directly on the perturbation
I. INTRODUCTION sources that are the switches. The voltage variation
dV/dt can be reduce. If we increase the value of the
Generally, the power supplies used in power
grid resistance, the common mode current is lower. In
electronic produce EMI pollution. They can be in
this case, a compromise must be found between
radiated or in conducted mode. Many techniques are
pollution level and the switching losses.
developed to reduce these disturbances. The first one is
The use of frequency modulation techniques permit
commonly the use of filters to reduce the conducted
to obtain a spectrum with a lower EMI level than with
mode. The choice of filter is function of differential or
the conventional constant frequency square signal [2].
common couplings. These couplings are different in
In fact, the amplitude of each harmonic is distributed
function of the used of power supplies. Others
on the modulation frequency band around the
techniques are to act on the interference sources.
harmonic.
Between 150 kHz and 30 MHz, the conducted
We want to understand the problem of the
interferences of power supplies are represented by the
interferences between a standard EMI filter and a
differential and common mode. The disturbance
power supply, figure 1. We do not take other
current of differential mode depends of the variation of
techniques of reduction into account. We used a
current dI/dt in the switch. It is the high frequency
simulation tool in order to understand the EMI
harmonics of the commutation of current. The
phenomena. A common mathematical tool as
disturbance current of common mode is function of the
MATLAB£ is developed in frequency domain. We
variation of voltage dV/dt of the switch. This variation
can predict with accuracy the conducted EMI before
applied on the parasitic capacitances creates a current
building a power supply with filter. The frequency
going from the circuit to the ground.
range studied is 150 kHz-30 MHz. We consider in the
In the case of the power supplies in communication
simulation tool’s, the Line Impedance Stabilization
domain, the common mode is the principal pollution.
Network (LISN), the converter and the load. We take
This power supply must respect the hard susceptibility
all active and passive parasitic elements into account.
standards. A ground plane is added for the immunity.
The result is the increase of the parasitic capacitive
between the track and the ground. So, we have an
increase of the common mode current. L1
In order to reduce the disturbance currents, the C56 C3 C7
classical approach is the use of passive EMI filters. Power
C1 C2 C5 Supply
The filter is necessary at the input and at the output of +
the device. If there is only an input filter, then the C54 C4 C6 Load
pollution go to the load, and can stop the operation of
the load. The filter size is function of the attenuation
value in order to respect the standard. The choice of Fig. 1. Full input EMI filter with the power supply
filter takes the interactions between the input and
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Firstly, we present the simulation tool used in our
research. Secondly, we apply this tool to simulate the
pollution of industrial power supply. The power supply
studied is constituted of both cascaded converters in
series with the input filter. It is used like a battery
charger in telecommunication domain. We show the
input filter influence on the EMI spectrum.
II. DESCRIPTION OF THE POWER SUPPLY
The power supply used in this work is a power factor
correction (PFC) of Boost type associated to an
inverter. The PFC converter permits to obtain a input
current always sinusoidal in phase with the network
voltage. The inverter with a transformer and a rectifier
reduces the voltage output and insures the isolation
between the mains and the load, figure 2. The
specifications of each module is given table I. We
determine the conducted EMI in dBµV.
Network PFC Inverter Load
230ac 50Hz
Fig. 2. Equivalent schematic with the PFC in series with the
inverter and with the load
Input Voltage 230 VRMS
Output Voltage 48 VDC
Vbus 382 VDC
Input Current 3.2 ARMS
Output Current 12 ADC
Switching frequency of PFC 50 kHz
Switching frequency of Full Bridge 112 kHz
TABLE I SPECIFICATIONS OF THE FULL POWER SUPPLY
III. EMI TOOL DESCRIPTION
This section is a description of the proposed tool.
We work directly in the frequency domain. The
software enables to determine the conducted EMI in
dB/µV.
A. Assumptions.
For the conducted EMI prediction, we propose a
complete electrical equivalent circuit including the full
converter itself with all the parasites, the measurement
equipment which is the LISN. We do not forget the
cabling impedance between LISN and converter. We
do many hypothesis in order to limit the complexity of
the modelisation. We do not take the saturation effect
of the boost inductance of the PFC into account. We
consider that just the switches of the Boost converter
and the full bridge are responsible of the pollution. The
impedance of the network is endless. The impedance’s
variations of the components due to the thermal
phenomena are negligee.
B. Sources of pollution, propagation paths and
receptor
The propagation paths correspond to the electrical
connections between interference components and the
commutation cell. The study of propagation paths
requires a previous knowledge of the high frequency
behaviour of every components and interference
elements. These elements are the parasitic capacitances
and inductances. The passive components, the circuit
layout and the bridge rectifier form the full propagation
path. All these components and layouts were carefully
measured.
The switch and the diode are two sources of
pollution. These sources produce the pollution in the
commutation cell. We suppose that the rectifier does
not generate disturbances but the impedances of the
diodes are included in the simulation.
C. Modelisation of the PFC in series with the inverter
For the modelisation of the converter, we use a
matrix method designed with Kirchoff law [3]. The
equation 1 is considered.
U=Z.I (1)
U : sources of pollution produced by the
commutation cell.
Z : Impedance matrix representing the converter.
I : Parasitic Currents produced by the sources of
pollution across the impedance matrix.
Each element of the circuit respects the impedance
variation along the frequency range 150 kHz-30 MHz.
The layouts are assimilated to inductances and the
ground board is represented by capacitances.
IV. WHOLE SIMULATION SYSTEM.
To study the behaviour of EMI filter, we must be
able to simulate the whole system without the filters. In
this part, the simulation results concern the PFC in
series with the inverter, figure 1.
Simulation
Template
EN 55022 Measurement
Fig. 3. Template, simulation and measurement of the PFC in
series with the inverter and C2, C5, C6 and C7 on the range 150 kHz-
30 MHz.
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Figure 3 shows the result of the simulation of the full represent the measured impedance, figure 7. The
power supply that is compared to the experimental calculated impedance will placed in ground wire.
result. The simulation permits to calculated the envelop
of electromagnetic spectrum. In high frequency, the
simulation has computed three peaks that exist too in
practical. These peaks are the result of resonance
phenomenon at frequency 8, 12 and 20 MHz.

Loop A Loop B

C6

C2 C5
Inverter
+
C7 Load
Loop C Fig. 6. Measurement and simulation of the common mode choke
on the range 150 kHz-30 MHz.

Fig. 4. Resonant circuits A, B and C.

LMC/2
Phase IMC/2
These peaks are produced by resonance loops A
IMC/2
RMC/2 C
stimulated by the PFC pollution voltage source. The 2CMC Neutral
IMC/2
MOSFET in series with the inductance and with
LMC/2 LMC
capacitances C5, C6 and C7 compose the three loops A,
IMC/2 IMC RMC
B, C, figure 4. The loops impedance calculation has RMC/2
allowed to identify the loops creating the resonance B 2CMC D
Ground CMC
phenomenon [4].
Fig. 7. Model of the common mode choke of L101 with
LMC=5.6 mH, CMC=6.5 pF et RMC=2 kȍ.
V. INSERTION OF THE COMMON MODE FILTER
In this part, we describe the model used of the The impedance of the leaking inductance of common
common filter inserted at input of the converter. We mode filter is measured and presented, figure 8. We
choose an common mode inductance because it is the measure the impedance between A and C. From the
common mode noise which is predominant. Each measurement, we calculate the model of this
winding is in series with the network and the two impedance with the same method, figure 9.
winding are coupled, figure 5. The common mode
currents are leakage currents that go through the 4
measure
10 model
ground. Also the common mode current IMC creates a
Impedance

flux in two winding what adds itself in magnetic

material, and the differential mode current IMD creates a 10
2
6 7
10 10
flux in the two winding what subtracts itself. We Frequency (Hz)
Phase

100
obtain a large inductance value for the common mode 50

current, and a low inductance value for the differential 0

mode. This inductance associated to the capacitances -50

-100
C6, C7 creates a filter for the common mode current. 10
6
10
7

Frequency (Hz)

IMD Fig. 8. Measurement and simulation of the leaking inductance

A
C
A C IMC/2
LMD/2
IMD
B D IMD RMD/2
A C
2CMD
B D
IMC/2
LMD/2
Fig. 5. Schematic of the common mode choke IMD
RMD/2
B 2CMD D
The impedance of the common mode filter is
measured and presented figure 6. The leg A and B are Fig. 9. Model of the differential mode of L101 with LMD=35 µH,
directly short-circuited like the legs C and D to make CMD=7 pF and RMD=30 kȍ
the measurement. The electric model is computed to
The full model is the mixing of common mode
model and the leaking inductance model [5].
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VI. SIMULATION RESULTS VII. FULL EMI FILTER

Figure 10, the equivalent schematic of the common
mode choke is inserted in the power supply model.
Each parameter of common filter is presented in each
impedance Zmd/2, Zmc et Zmd/2.
Zmd/2
We add in the input filter two capacitances of
common mode C54 and C56 and a capacitance of
differential mode C1, figure 1. The input filter is now
full. We can see that the level of the peaks at 1.2, 8 and
12 MHz have largely reduced. There is a drop of the
EMI pollution on the lower frequency. On the other
hand, the spectrum in HF stay the same, figure 13.

C3
C5 Power
Zmc C6
C2 supply
L.I.S.N +
Load
C4
C7 Simulation
Zmd/2

Fig. 10. HF schematic of the filter of the common mode L1

In order to show the influence of filter, we simulate

the full system and we compare at the measurement.
We show a great reduction of the EMI pollution at low Measurement
and medium frequency, figure 11.

Fig. 13. Measurement and simulation of the full input filter on the
range 150 kHz-30 MHz .

Simulation

M easurement
Fig. 11. Simulation and measurement of the EMI pollution with
the common mode filter C2, C3, C4, C5, C6 C7 and L1 on the range
150 kHz-30 MHz.
We can observe a new peak of resonance at 1.2 MHz
in measurement and in simulation. We have identified
this loop by the calculation of the impedance of
different loop. The resonant loop E, figure 12, is
created by the two capacitances in parallel C2 and C5 in
series with the Boost inductance. This peak didn’t
appear before, the pollution was higher than it. This
peak just appears now because the EMI pollution
generates the power supply are above this peak.
C3 C7
Inverter
C2 C5 + USA, feb 2004.
Load
C4 C6
VIII. CONCLUSION
In summary, we have presented the power supply
studied and the problem of EMI pollution and the
different solutions of EMI reduction. We have shown
that the EMI simulations of two industrial converters
between 150 kHz and 30 MHz are similar to the
measurement. Thanks to the validation of the
simulation tool, we can studied the influence of various
parameter in order to see their influence on the EMI
spectrum like the influence of resonance loops. Now, it
is easier to change the value of the component of the
filter in order to optimize the size of the filter.
REFERENCES
[1] L. Rosseto, S. Buso, G. Spiazzi, “Conducted EMI Issues in a
600-W Single-Phase Boost PFC design”. IEEE Transactions on
industry application, Vol. 36, NO. 2,pp.578-585, March/April
2000.
[2] A. Santolaria, J. Barcells, D. Ganzáles, J. Gago “EMI
Reduction in Switched Power Converter by Means of Spread
Spectrum Modulation Techniques ”, PESC 2004 IEEE 35th,
Aachen, Germany, 2004
[3] S. Brehaut, J-C. Le Bunetel, D. Magnon, A. Puzo. “A
conducted EMI model for an industrial power supply full
bridge”, PESC 2004 IEEE 35th, 2004
[4] S. Brehaut, J-C. Le Bunetel, D. Magnon, A. Puzo. “Analysis
EMI of a PFC on the band pass 150kHz-30MHz for a reduction
of the electromagnetic pollution”, APEC 2004 IEEE, Anaheim,
[5] B.Revol, J. Roudet. “EMC modeling of a three phase inverter”,
EPE 2003, Toulouse, France, 2003.

Loop E

Fig. 12. Equivalent schematic showing the loop E