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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTROMAGNETIC COMPATIBILITY, VOL. 41, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 1999

Measurement of Conducted Electromagnetic Emissions in

PWM Motor Drive Systems Without the Need for an LISN
L. Ran, J. C. Clare, K. J. Bradley, C. Christopoulos

AbstractThis paper presents a technique for measuring the conducted

electromagnetic emissions produced by pulse-width modulated (PWM)
inverter induction motor drive systems. The method does not require an
artificial line-impedance stabilizing network (LISN) but does, however,
allow the emission levels to be calculated as if an LISN were present.
Testing can be performed when an LISN is either unavailable, prohibitively expensive, or impractical to include in the supply. This is often the
case for large drive systems or for systems already installed in the field.
A normal RF voltage probe and a spectrum analyzer are used to measure
the spectra of the common-mode and differential-mode excitation sources
due to the inverter switching. Line inductors for high-frequency (HF)
isolation are required for some of the tests, but the cost and complexity of
these compared to an LISN is low. Common-mode and differential-mode
Thevenin equivalent circuits are then derived from measured impedances.
The emissions for any defined supply impedance (including an LISN) can
then be determined. A laboratory test on a 15 kW PWM drive system
is carried out to verify the accuracy and effectiveness of the proposed
method.
Index Terms Conducted emissions, electromagnetic compatibility,
power converters, variable speed drives.

I. INTRODUCTION
Conducted electromagnetic emissions produced by variable-speed
ac drive systems are of increasing concern in industry. Filtering is
normally required to achieve compliance with regulations and this can
add considerable cost to the product and to product development.
Extensive tests in the frequency range up to 30 MHz are required
to identify the noise signature of the system so that compliance
with international standards can be demonstrated and/or suitable
filtering and suppression techniques can be determined. Standard
measurements usually require that the drive is supplied from a
line impedance stabilizing network (LISN) [1]. The function of the
LISN is to isolate the drive (at high frequencies) from the utility
power supply and to provide a means of measuring the conducted
emission by diverting the RF currents through a defined impedance
(for example, 50
resistive). However, as discussed below, it is very
desirable in some circumstances to be able to measure the conducted
emissions of the drive system without using an LISN.
For large drive systems, say above 100 kW, an LISN of comparable
rating can be prohibitively costly. Depending on the emission mechanism being considered it may be necessary to operate the drive system
at full load and this excludes the possibility of using an LISN of
lower rating. Drive manufacturers may not wish to invest in specialist
electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) testing facilities like the LISN
and it is, therefore, particularly useful to be able to obtain information
about the system performance using available instruments [2]. LISNfree measurements are also useful during drive commissioning where
the inclusion of an LISN in the supply may be impractical. In some
situations, the use of an LISN is undesirable because of its effect on
the system performance. For example, the LISN can influence rectifier
Manuscript received May 27, 1997, revised April 30, 1998. This work was
supported by the industrial partners and EPSRC in the LINK PEDDS Project
EMC in Power Electronic Converters and Drives under Grant GR/K40932.
The authors are with the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Nottingham, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, U.K.
Publisher Item Identifier S 0018-9375(99)01535-5.

commutation [3] and significantly change the emission signature of

the drive (this is particularly true for dc drives). In such cases, it is
useful to be able to test the drive without the LISN. Some of these
difficulties can be overcome by the use of a voltage probe to make
measurements [1] and this is the method normally applied at high
powers. However, the approach described here allows the emissions
to be predicted for any defined supply impedance. It is, therefore,
useful for assessing the effectiveness of proposed filtering strategies
and can also be used for precompliance testing. No previous work
on this subject has been reported.
Although it is possible to use numerical models to predict the
emissions of drive systems, the accuracy that can be achieved is
always limited by the need to simplify the representation of very
complex phenomena [4], [5]. For example, it is difficult to model
the full details of the switching processes within the inverter, which
are significant in determining the emission level. The stray parameters
distributed in the system are seldom accurately known and neither are
the high-frequency characteristics of various components including
the induction motor, cables, and the auxiliary circuits connected to
the power electronic stage. Modeling techniques exist to determine
some of these parameters but very sophisticated tools are required and
they very quickly become unwieldly for a system of this complexity.
As a result, it is useful to predict the conducted emission level of the
drive system based on measurements and, thus, to validate numerical
model predictions.
The study of this paper assumes that the LISN characteristics
are well defined and, thus, can be modeled analytically. Based on
Thevenins theorem, a voltage probe is used to measure the common
and differential mode sources of the drive, which is supplied directly
from the utility supply. The Thevenin impedances of the drive are
measured off line taking into account the conduction pattern of the
inverter. Unwanted effects due to the supply system are minimized
by setting up the test system according to the mode concerned.
From these measurements, the conducted emission level is calculated
as if an LISN were present. The calculated results are, therefore,
always referenced to a standard system configuration using an LISN
and the experiment is, thus, repeatable. The Thevenin representation
allows the effectiveness of filtering strategies to be predicted and also
provides information about the different modes which are difficult to
separate with conventional tests. Comparative studies are used to
confirm the accuracy of the proposed method.

II. DOMINANT MODES OF CONDUCTED EMISSIONS

Fig. 1 illustrates the configuration of a typical PWM inverter
induction motor drive system with a voltage-type dc link assuming an
LISN is present. The dashed lines indicate the dominant oscillation
modes, which are concerned with the conducted emissions. Viewed
from the LISN, both common and differential modes are present if
the drive is not fitted with an internal filter. Common-mode emissions
are driven by a voltage created by the inverter switching, which is
developed between the heatsink/earth and the dc link [4], [5]. This
voltage is characterized by a series of sharp edges associated with
each switching event in the inverter. Differential mode oscillations
between the output phases are also created by each switching. These
lead to differential mode currents on the LISN side due to the parasitic
inductance and resistance of the dc link capacitor bank [5]. In this
paper, we consider only differential mode emissions created by the
high-frequency switching of the inverter and by the control electronics

00189375/99$10.00 1999 IEEE

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTROMAGNETIC COMPATIBILITY, VOL. 41, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 1999

51

Fig. 1. System configuration and dominant modes.

Fig. 3. Measured spectrum of differential mode emissions at LISN.

Fig. 2. Measured spectrum of LISN earth current.

supplied via the inverter dc link. Differential mode emissions due to

the input rectifier bridge have been considered elsewhere [3].
Based on the principle of superposition, each mode can be analyzed
individually. The common-mode emissions can be identified from the
LISN earth current whose spectrum is shown in Fig. 2 for the 15kW test-drive system running at 40-Hz output frequency. The signal
level is generally above 40 dBA up to about 10 MHz. The spike
at 24 MHz in the current spectrum is due to clock pulses on the
control board. The corresponding common mode components in the
LISN output voltage will be 34 dB greater due to the 50-
LISN
impedance.
Differential mode emissions can be measured at the LISN by
opening the LISN earth conductor or by connecting a choke of large
inductance in series with it (for personnel safety). The common-mode
components are, thus, suppressed in the LISN voltage. In doing this,
it is assumed that system is balanced and the common-mode current
does not, therefore, give rise to any differential mode emissions.
The measured spectrum of the differential mode LISN voltage when
the LISN earth conductor is disconnected is shown in Fig. 3. The
significant emission level illustrates that the dc link-capacitor bank
is not able to completely restrict the differential mode current to the
output side.
The spectra in Figs. 2 and 3 were measured with an LISN included
in the test setup. The purpose of this study is to develop a method
whereby these emission characteristics can be reconstructed from
measurements made without an LISN when the drive system is
connected directly to the utility power system. Assuming that the
characteristics of the LISN are well defined, this can be achieved
provided that the drive system can be reduced to a Thevenin equivalent for each mode as shown in Fig. 4. The common and differential
mode emissions are calculated assuming that each phase of the LISN
can be represented by its 50-
impedance although the true LISN

Fig. 4. Equivalent circuits for common and differential modes.

impedance could be used for more accuracy. For the common mode,
two phases of the LISN appear in parallel since it is assumed that
two of the input rectifier bridge diodes conduct at any time. For the
differential mode, two LISN phases appear in series for the same
reason. It is also necessary to account for the fact that each input
phase is only active for at most 240 of each supply cycle due to the
diode bridge. During discontinuous conduction the diode conduction
times will be shorter, 240 , represents the worst case and is, therefore,
used in the calculations. The common mode current and differential
mode LISN voltage are then given by
j

Icm (!)j =

Ecm (!)
25 + Zcm (!)
j

(1)

52

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTROMAGNETIC COMPATIBILITY, VOL. 41, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 1999

Fig. 6. Measured spectrum of common mode excitation source.

Fig. 5. RF voltage probe with isolation.

Vdm0lisn (!)j =

2
3

100

j100

+ Zdm (! )j

Edm (!)j:

(2)

In order to compute the total RF voltage measured at the LISN it

is necessary to combine the common mode and differential mode
effects. Since the relative phase is not known it is only possible
to add the magnitudes at each frequency. This gives the worst-case
condition and will be most accurate at frequencies where one of the
modes dominates. Potential errors will be greater at frequencies where
the modes are of comparable amplitudes.
Where impedance is inserted between the drive and the LISN
(for example, filters or cables) then (1) and (2) can be modified
accordingly to take this into account. The remaining problem is to
determine measurement techniques so that the Thevenin equivalent
circuits of the drive system can be found. Measurement of the sources
Ecm (!) and Edm (!) and the impedances Zcm (!) and Zdm (!) are
considered separately below.
III. MEASUREMENT OF THEVENIN EQUIVALENT SOURCES
By definition, the EMF in a Thevenin equivalent is the terminal
voltage measured when the corresponding external part of the system
is open circuited. For the common mode, this requires that the supply
earth conductor is disconnected. The voltage is then measured using
a standard voltage probe [1] connected between the dc link and
the heatsink of the semiconductor devices, which is mounted on
the drive case. In order to ensure that the earth path is indeed
open circuited, the voltage probe should be augmented with a 1:1
RF transformer with small insertion loss as shown in Fig. 5. The
transformer used is a mini-circuits-type FTB-1-6, which has a flatfrequency response (within 1 dB) over a frequency range 10 kHz-250
MHz; the transformer stray capacitances are, therefore, negligible at
the frequencies considered here. A voltage probe of this type can be
easily made or obtained commercially. The measured voltage then
needs to be scaled by the attenuation ratio of the probe (50/1550 or
29.8 dB) assuming the response is constant over the whole frequency
range. Alternatively, the probe can be calibrated more accurately
using an impedance analyzer. We use the latter method.
It is important for the validity of the method that the measured
Thevenin equivalent voltage is dependent only on the drive and its
load and is independent of the supply impedance. This is investigated
by comparing a measurement of the common-mode source made
with and without the LISN, as shown in Fig. 6. Although the supply
impedance changes significantly when the LISN is included, the effect
on the spectrum of the common-mode source is almost negligible.
This confirms that the measured source depends only on the drive
and the load and is, therefore, a true Thevenin equivalent.

Fig. 7. Measured spectrum of differential mode excitation source.

It has been observed experimentally that the spectrum of the

common-mode voltage source is almost identical when measured
from either of the dc link buses. This is because virtually no commonmode current flows through the dc link capacitor. For common
modes, the potentials of the two dc buses are merely different by
a constant voltage Vdc , which can be neglected when analyzng the
high-frequency EMC phenomena. The large differential-mode current
flowing through the dc link-capacitor bank will not significantly
influence the common-mode emissions.
The differential mode Thevenin source Edm (! ) is theoretically
the voltage measured across the dc link-capacitor bank when the
supply is open circuit. This introduces a difficulty since it is obviously
impossible to operate the drive in this way. To overcome this problem,
line inductors are inserted for the test, which effectively open circuit
the supply at the frequencies of interest, but allow the drive to operate
normally. This inductance also swamps the supply impedance and
again ensures that the measurement is independent of the supply
characteristics. Fig. 7 shows the spectrum of Edm (! ) measured using
the voltage probe described earlier. Despite the compact construction
and high-quality decoupling components used in the inverter, the
considerable level of this signal illustrates the difficulty (particularly
from the EMC viewpoint) caused by the high levels of di=dt
generated by modern power devices.
IV. DETERMINATION OF THEVENIN IMPEDANCES
For the common-mode emissions, the three output phases of the
pulse-width modulated (PWM) inverter are effectively in parallel [4],
[5]. At any time, each phase is connected either to the positive
or negative dc bus through a conducting device in the inverter

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTROMAGNETIC COMPATIBILITY, VOL. 41, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 1999

53

Fig. 8. Circuit to measure common mode impedance.

Fig. 10. Computed common mode impedance.

Fig. 9. Measured common mode impedance.

and the two dc buses can be considered to be an equipotential in

the analysis of common mode emissions [4], [5]. Therefore, the
drive system is reduced to a constant topology circuit based on
which the Thevenin impedance of the system can be defined. With
the supply disconnected, the arrangement to measure the common
mode Thevenin impedance Zcm (!) is illustrated in Fig. 8. Note that
the Thevenin impedance includes the output cable and load. The
measurement is carried out off-line and temporary links between the
dc buses and the output phases are used to mimic conducting devices
in the inverter. These links should be as short as possible and, if
practicable, can be made directly on the IGBT modules. According
to the preceding argument, the combination of connection between
the ac and dc terminals does not significantly affect the measurement.
An impedance analyzer is used to perform the measurement. The
measured Zcm (! ) for the test system (which includes a 10 m motor
cable) is shown in Fig. 9. This clearly shows transmission line effects
due to the relatively long motor cable.
When an impedance analyzer is not available, Zcm (! ) can be
estimated using numerical models based on simplified representations
of the drive system components [4], [5], but this is less satisfactory.
The common mode impedance of the induction motor Zmot (! ) can
be calculated from an equivalent circuit which models its highfrequency behavior [4][6]. The total common-mode admittance
Ycm (! )(= 1=Zcm (! )) can then be expressed as [7]

Ycm (! ) =

Zmot (! )z0 cosh( 0 d) + z02 sinh( 0 d)

Zmot (! )sinh( 0 d) + z0 cosh( 0 d)

+ j!Cstray

(3)

where z0 and 0 are the characteristic impedance and propagation

parameters of the motor cable for the common mode, d is the cable
length, and Cstray is the total stray capacitance of the IGBT switches
to the heatsink. Equation (3) allows Zcm (! ) to be calculated from

relatively straightforward measurements made on the motor, cable,

and power-device modules [4], [5].
Fig. 10 shows Zcm (! ) for the test setup calculated using (3).
Comparison with Fig. 9 shows that the general shape of the measured
impedance is reproduced. The transmission-line effects due to the
long cable are accounted for although the measured impedance
is more complicated than that predicted by the numerical model.
The difference between the measured and calculated impedance is
generally less than 25
implying that when the computed impedance
is used to calculate the emissions at the LISN side, the resultant error
will be within 6 dB. Clearly, it is desirable to use the measured
impedance if possible, but the numerical model will give useful
results when an expensive impedance analyzer is not available.
It is relatively straightforward to determine the Thevenin
impedance for the differential mode Zdm (! ). This is the impedance
of the dc link capacitor in parallel with the impedance of the
output circuit reflected through the inverter to the dc link. Strictly,
this varies with the inverter switching pattern. However, for any
sensible practical inverter with a moderate length output cable the
external output circuit impedance is much greater than the shunt
dc link impedance at high frequencies and its effect on Zdm (! )
can be neglected. Zdm (! ) is, therefore, taken simply to be the
shunt impedance of the dc link-capacitor bank, which, again, can
be measured with an impedance analyzer. Alternatively, when an
analyzer is not present, it can be assumed that this impedance
simplifies to a constant inductance, which may be measured with an
LCR bridge. A constant measured inductance Ldc is assumed for
the results presented here.
V. EXPERIMENTAL VERIFICATION
The method proposed in this paper is used to predict the emission
levels by measuring impedances and voltage sources when a LISN
is not used. The predicted emission levels are, however, calculated
based on the assumption that a LISN is present so that the results are
comparable with standards which specify the EMC performance with
well-defined test conditions. Therefore, the accuracy of the proposed
method can be verified by comparing the predicted emission level
with that measured when a LISN is used.
Fig. 11 shows the predicted spectrum of the LISN earth current (representing the common-mode emissions) together with the
corresponding measurement shown previously in Fig. 2. In the computation, (1) has been extended to include the short (1 m) supply
cable linking the LISN and the drive. Good agreement is demonstrated. Fig. 12 shows the predicted spectrum of the differential
mode emissions together with the measurement shown previously
in Fig. 3. Generally, there is reasonable agreement although there

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTROMAGNETIC COMPATIBILITY, VOL. 41, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 1999

Fig. 13. Filter arrangement.

Fig. 11.
current.

Comparison of measured and predicted spectra of LISN earth

Fig. 14. Common mode equivalent circuit with filter in place.

Fig. 12. Comparison of measured and predicted differential mode LISN

voltage spectra.

is a loss of accuracy at the low-frequency end. The agreement has

been considerably improved compared with what was achieved using
numerical simulation models [4], [5]. Higher order effects such as
the complex nature of the switching edges and the stray components
that are impractical to include exactly in a numerical simulation are
inherently taken into account in the measurement method proposed.
If the Thevenin equivalent circuits for the drive/load system are
known, it is also possible to predict the emissions when filters
are introduced between the drive and LISN. To investigate this a
simple filter supplied by the drive manufacture was included in the
experimental setup. This filter consists of line chokes and lineline
capacitors placed on the supply side of the chokes as shown in
Fig. 13. Differential mode currents are virtually eliminated at the
LISN since they are diverted through the capacitors. The series
impedance of the chokes also serves to attenuate the common mode
current. With this filter in place, the common mode current is
shared by all three LISN phases since the line to line capacitors are
effectively a short circuit at high frequencies. Two of the line chokes
are involved in the common mode path assuming that two diodes in
the input rectifier are conducting so that the equivalent circuit is as
shown in Fig. 14. If the chokes are represented using a single series
reactance function Xlter (!) then (1) can be modified to compute
the common mode LISN voltage as follows:
j

Vcm0lisn (!)j =

50=3
(! )j:
jE
=3 + Zcm (!) + jXlter (!)j cm

j50

(4)

Fig. 15 shows the measured and computed spectra of the LISN

output voltage with the filter in place. Good agreement is again

Fig. 15. Comparison of measured and predicted common mode emissions

at LISN with filter included.

obtained. In order to further improve the accuracy of the calculation,

the impedance characteristics of the differential mode filter can be
measured. These results show that once the Thevenin equivalent
circuits are determined, the proposed method can be extended to look
at the effectiveness of various filtering techniques.
VI. CONCLUSIONS
A new method is proposed to measure the conducted emissions of a
PWM inverter induction motor-driven system without using a LISN.
The drive system is represented as a Thevenin equivalent, which can
be used to predict the emissions at the input side. The common and
differential mode excitation sources are determined on-line and the
uncertainty of the utility power supply system impedance does not
affect the measurement. The Thevenin impedances can be measured
off line. Using a spectrum analyzer and an RF voltage probe, the
proposed method is easy to implement and can include many complex
effects that are difficult to model numerically. The accuracy of the
method is verified using measurements on a 15-kW test-drive system.
The predicted conducted emission levels can be calculated as if an

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTROMAGNETIC COMPATIBILITY, VOL. 41, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 1999

LISN were used and can be used for precompliance testing. The
method is expected to be useful and cost effective when a LISN is
not available for large PWM drive systems or when the inclusion of a
LISN is impractical. Although a voltage probe is conventionally used
at high powers to make measurements without a LISN, the proposed
method yields extra information about the individual modes and the
emission level can be calculated for any defined supply impedance.
This makes the method suitable for predicting the effectiveness of
filtering strategies as well.

APPENDIX
TEST-DRIVE SYSTEM DATA
Supply system
PWM inverter
Induction motor
Motor cable
LISN cable
LISN

Ldc

Input filter

415 V, 50 Hz;
IGBT type, 5 kHz switching frequency;
415 V, 15 kW, four pole, cage rotor;
four core cable, 10 m unscreened;
four cable, 1 m unscreened;
Rohde and Schwarz ESH2-Z5;
37 nH;
line-line capacitor 150 nF, line choke 145
H (measured at 100 kHz).
REFERENCES

[1] International Standards, CISPR 16-1, International Electrotechnical

Commission, 1993.
[2] T. Williams, EMC for Product Designers. Newnes, Oxford:
Butterworth-Heinemann, 1992.
[3] R. Scheich and J. Roudet, EMI conducted emissions in differential
mode emanating from an SCR: Phenomena and noise level prediction,
IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 10, pp. 105110, Mar. 1995.
[4] L. Ran, S. Gokani, J. C. Clare, K. J. Bradley, and C. Christopoulos, Conducted electromagnetic emissions in induction motor drive
systemsPart 1: Time-domain analysis and identification of dominant
modes, IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 13, pp. 757767, July 1998.
[5] L. Ran, S. Gokani, J. C. Clare, K. J. Bradley, and C. Christopoulos,
Conducted electromagnetic emissions in induction motor drive systemsPart 2: Frequency domain models, IEEE Trans. Power Electron.,
vol. 13, pp. 768776, July 1998.
[6] E. Zhong and T. A. Lipo, Improvements in EMC performance of
inverter-fed motor drives, IEEE Trans. Ind. Applicat., vol. 31, pp.
12471256, Nov./Dec. 1995.
[7] C. Christopoulos, Principles and Techniques of Electromagnetic Compatibility. Boca Raton, FL: CRC, 1995.

55

Electric and Magnetic Fields

Created by Electrosurgical Units
Robert Martin Nelson and Howard Ji

AbstractOne of the places where it is critical to prevent equipment

malfunction due to electromagnetic interference is in the hospital operating room. Unfortunately, the electromagnetic environment in hospital
operating rooms can be quite harsh. The electromagnetic fields present
in this environment are created by distant sources such as AM and
FM broadcast transmitting antennas as well as local sources such as
electrosurgical units. In this paper, measured values are reported of
electric and magnetic field strengths created by typical electrosurgical
units. Measurements were taken in operating rooms at the Department
of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Fargo, ND, and were made for three
electrosurgical units (ESU) operating modes. All three components of the
electric and magnetic fields were determined as a function of frequency.
Field strengths as large as 153 dBV/m and 76 dBA/m were measured
1 m from the electrosurgical unit.
Index Terms Antennas, electric field measurement, electromagnetic
compatibility, electromagnetic interference, magnetic field measurement.

I. INTRODUCTION
Electrosurgical generators (which are also called electrosurgical
units) are commonly used in surgical procedures to cut tissue or
stop blood flow. The electrosurgical unit (ESU) uses high-frequency
currents to accomplish these tasks. The electric and magnetic fields
created by these currents can induce electrical noise in nearby electronic devices. In the work reported here, the electric and magnetic
fields emanating from a typical ESU were measured as a function of
frequency in an operating room environment. Antennas were placed
1 m from both the ESU and the specimen being operated on. The
fields emanating from the ESU were measured while the device was
used in various operating modes and with various power levels.
After a review of the background of this problem, the objectives
and scope of the paper are set forth. Section II describes the measurement methodology and development used in the project, including
a description of the measurement site, equipment being tested and
measurement equipment. In addition, a typical measurement session
is described and measurement concerns are discussed. Measurement
results are provided in Section III, including both the electric and
magnetic field strengths emanating from the equipment under test
as well as ambient fields. Concluding remarks are provided in
Section IV.
A. Background
The phenomenal changes that have occurred in the electronics
industry in the past several years have had a drastic effect on
the technology and instrumentation used in modern medical care.
Virtually every aspect of modern medical care involves the use of
electronic devicesfrom electronic monitoring systems to magnetic
resonance imaging units to ESUsthe use of high-speed electronics
has virtually revolutionized the instrumentation used in hospitals and
Manuscript received May 13, 1994; revised September 15, 1998. This
work was supported by a grant from NSF/ASEND (National Science Foundation/Advancing Science Excellence in ND).
R. M. Nelson is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, North
Dakota State University, Fargo, ND 58105 USA.
H. Ji is with Cisco Systems, San Jose, CA 95134 USA.
Publisher Item Identifier S 0018-9375(99)01536-7.

00189375/99$10.00 1999 IEEE