Near-field scanner for the accurate characterization of electromagnetic fields in the close vicinity of electronic devices and systems

A new in-house developed three-dimensional scanning system for measuring electromagnetic fields close to devices and systems is presented. The scanning system is able to perform translations along a three-dimensional Cartesian grid with arbitrary grid size so that any electromagnetic field component can be measured with high accuracy and detail. A near-field scan of an AT motherboard and of a telecom subsystem is described to illustrate the performance of the scanning system. The measurements show that the scanning, system is an excellent diagnostic tool for the detection of EMC problems in an early stage of product development.