AutoEMC : a European success story

The starting point on the road to Numerical EMC was the AutoEMC European Project with the challenge of managing complex automotive systems, with different relevant geometric scales, the car body, the internal harness and on-board electronic equipment. The basic principles of this multi-level strategy have been first checked on academic cases, and then exploited in a realistic industrial context. This collaboration between major car makers (BMW, FIAT and RENAULT), software companies (ESI Group and ANALOGY Inc.) and the University of Turin could be later on, fully validated with several industrial partners worldwide. All types of electromagnetic interaction such as immunity, cross-coupling and interference have been integrated into the environment using the appropriate software, in accordance with the recommendations made by industrial users. As a result, new EMC design rules were identified, which make it possible to consider the integration of this normative aspect during the design phase of a vehicle.

EMC Safe Design

The main industrial objectives of the EMC Safe Design European project involving Robert Bosch GmbH, Siemens A.G., the Fraunhofer Institute and ESI Group, were the generalization, the adaptation and the validation of methodologies and simulation tools for EMC design of electronic components and systems, to be performed early in the development cycle instead of test verification after product completion. Targeted applications were featuring typical EMC problems dealing on one hand with electromagnetic phenomena related to the integration of electronic equipment inside their operating environment, and on the other hand with internal EMC/EMI problems occurring at the level of the circuit board itself. In each case the related requirements are somewhat different as the interfering or radiating phenomena were not similar which led to the application of one coupling procedure between two dedicated tools specialized in either PCB's characterization or radiated fields’ computations.

The AMELET Project

With the aim of capitalizing the overall knowledge from all partners, the AMELET project was proposing an integrated simulation platform specialized in the EMC (ElectroMagnetic Compatibility) analysis of industrial problems faced in the transportation industry. Based on a unified reference database, this platform offers a dedicated environment allowing the user to analyze efficiently and in a highly flexible way, all those typical EMC situations, dealing either with the ElectroMagnetic Susceptibility or Immunity of fully equipped vehicles, with the radiation of on-board electronic equipment, as well as EMI issues (Electromagnetic Interference) or even Antenna Design. Whatever the scenario is, an industrial solution is proposed to investigate the related electromagnetic phenomena, with the help of dedicated software tools. Supported by the PREDIT Programme of the French Department of Research and Space, this three-year project has been gathering industrial end-users (PSA Peugeot Citroën, ALSTOM Transport and RENAULT), software providers (EADS, ONERA, and ESI Group), EMC experts and research institutes (CERPEM, SUPELEC, ESIGELEC).

ALSTOM Transport Partnership

The PAM-CEM Solutions "Proof of the Concept" was initiated by ALSTOM Transport & followed by a strategic partnership with their EMC Centre of Excellence.
Regarding the development of High Speed Trains:
"As far as we are concerned, we consider that traditional methods should be abandoned and replaced by scientific conception methodologies where the birth of geometry is accompanied by performance prediction."
J.C. DUMAS, ALSTOM Transport
(PAM Conference)