Influences of Wiring Inside Ready-Made Connecting Devices on EMI in Medical Electronic Systems

In this letter, electromagnetic interference (EMI) in medical electronic systems related to the use of ready-made connecting devices is investigated. It has been observed that under some conditions, an inadequate number of shielding pins and their distribution in connectors and plugs may cause unacceptable EMI, especially when it occurs in, e.g., a surgery room. In real-life situations, installers are often deciding on how to arrange the shielding connections, while not being trained in electromagnetic compatibility-aware design. To get more insight and reveal the influence of some parameters of the shielding wiring, a lab measurement setup has been derived from a real environment, showing the impact of using imperfectly shielded connectors with different number and distributions of shielding wires. Suggestions for reducing the EMI of systems are proposed and can be applied to support installation practices and/or debugging in practical situations and various user environments.