A TEM-cell based method for radiative susceptibility characterization of low-power microcontrollers

The recent explosion in the portable electronics market combined with an increasingly hostile electromagnetic environment have intensified the need to include EM susceptibility design and test methods in applicable low-power ICs. This work presents and applies a TEM-cell based method of testing two key aspects-quiescent current and memory integrity-of the radiative susceptibility of low-power microcontrollers. The units were exposed to radiated EM fields of 20 to 1000 V/m at various frequencies from 0.1 to 1000 MHz. Significant changes in quiescent current occurred only at field values above 70 V/m, which is a much larger ambient field than the microcontroller is expected to experience when used in personal portable electronics products. RAM was changed only after illumination by fields of greater than 275 V/m.