EMC Research Efforts in the IEEJ Technical Committee and State-of-the-Art Case Studies on ESD Found in its Technical Papers

Abstract

Electrostatic discharge (ESD) has been known to cause electromagnetic noise against electronic equipment and devices even before the technical concept of electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) was established 68 years ago in the United States and 48 years ago in Japan, while the ESD still continues to be studied as one of the most significant issues that should be solved in EMC areas. This is largely because the underlying nature of ESD has yet to be essentially elucidated from an EMC perspective. On the other hand, as an academic research organization on EMC in Japan, a Technical Committee named ‘EMCJ’ on ‘Environmental Electromagnetic Engineering’ was founded in 1976 in both the Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan (IEEJ) and the Institute of Electronics and Communication Engineers or the present IEICE (Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers) to address EMC concerns. Since then, the EMCJ has been jointly conducting EMC research activities under the IEICE as the nominating body and the IEEJ as the associative body, whereas the EMCJ of IEEJ was dissolved in 1999 to form a new Technical Committee on EMC (TC-EMC) in order to deal with EMC issues appropriate to the IEEJ. In this review, to mark the 25th anniversary of the IEEJ Technical Committee on EMC (TC-EMC) in 2024, the EMC research efforts and activities that the TC-EMC has conducted over the past 25 years from January 2000 to March 2024 are surveyed from 1272 technical papers presented at the technical meetings. Furthermore, among the ESD issues identified in these technical papers, the latest case studies utilizing ‘spark resistance laws’ that allow the analysis of the initial behavior of sparks, in which a spark is the essence of ESD and is the key to open the door to elucidate the phenomenon, particularly from an EMC perspective, are reviewed. © 2024 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan and Wiley Periodicals LLC.