Hands-on EMC troubleshooting & DebugGing Workshop

Four-Day EMC Debug Workshop

Written by Dr Ali Shirsavar in his approachable, easy-to-follow style, this Four-Day EMC troubleshooting and Debugging Workshop is fundamentally different from traditional EMC training. While most EMC courses focus heavily on theory and limited front-of-class demonstrations, in true Biricha style this workshop is built around individual hands-on lab work and real hardware debugging.

After each theoretical concept is taught, each participant works at their own fully equipped lab station and is provided with specially designed training boards that contain known EMC problems. The students are required to measure, identify, and fix real conducted emissions, radiated emissions, and immunity issues themselves, using professional test equipment including LISNs, spectrum analyzers, network analyzers, current clamps, near field probes, and ESD tools.

The course focuses on hands-on debugging methods that engineers can directly use in real development projects, allowing participants to build repeatable problem-solving skills that can be immediately transferred into their own pre compliance and product development environments..

These workshops are designed for electronic engineers who:

• Need to quickly identify and fix EMC problems during product development
• Want to become confident using EMC measurement equipment for pre compliance debugging
• Are responsible for improving conducted and radiated emissions performance
• Need practical experience with immunity testing and susceptibility troubleshooting
• Want to reduce design iteration cycles and accelerate time to market
• Need structured, hands on EMC training rather than theory only seminars
• Need to add a minimum of 28 hours of continuous professional development hours to their portfolio

Workshop Overview

This Four-Day EMC Debugging Workshop is designed to take engineers step by step from fundamental EMC principles through to practical emissions and immunity debugging. Over four days, participants learn how to identify noise sources, apply effective mitigation techniques, and systematically work toward passing EMC compliance testing.

Starting from EMC fundamentals and measurement techniques, it progressively covers all major EMC debugging domains:

• Conducted emissions debugging (150 kHz to 30 MHz)
• Radiated emissions debugging (30 MHz and beyond)
• Immunity testing and susceptibility fault finding and troubleshooting
• Component selection and mitigation techniques for compliance

Numerous laboratory exercises and debugging examples are based on specially designed training boards that intentionally include common conducted emissions, radiated emissions, and immunity related EMC problems. This allows participants to practice realistic fault finding and mitigation techniques that directly reflect real-world compliance challenges.

Participants work either individually or in pairs at one of 10 fully equipped EMC debugging workstations. Each station includes a pre-compliance LISN, spectrum analyzer, current clamp, near-field probes, ESD equipment, and supporting laboratory instrumentation required for emissions and immunity debugging. This setup ensures that every attendee actively performs measurements, debugging, and mitigation verification throughout the course.

To maintain a high level of hands-on participation and instructor interaction, the total number of attendees is strictly limited to 20 per engineers session. This guarantees sufficient lab equipment, direct instructor support, and meaningful individual practice time.

Upon successful completion of the workshop, participants receive a certificate for their professional development records. Attendance and active participation throughout the majority of the workshop sessions are required to qualify for certification.

Agenda (total 28 hours of CPD)*

Day 1: EMC Fundamentals and Debugging Foundations​

• Fundamentals of EMC compliance and testing concepts
• Understanding conducted and radiated emissions measurement principles
• Noise coupling mechanisms including capacitive, inductive, and electromagnetic field coupling
• Linking frequency-domain noise signatures to real circuit boards and layout coupling paths
• Step-by-step EMC debugging workflow
• Hands-on labs include:
  • Hands-on operation of LISNs, spectrum analyzers, current clamps, near-field probes, and ESD tools
  • EMC instrument setup and pre-compliance measurement techniques
  • Noise coupling demonstrations and reflection experiments
  • Frequency-domain noise pattern recognition exercises on real hardware

Day 2: Conducted Emissions Debugging and Mitigation (150 kHz to 30 MHz)

• Fundamentals of conducted emissions measurements and regulatory limits
• Identifying dv/dt-related capacitive noise mechanisms
• Identifying di/dt-related magnetic coupling mechanisms
• Ringing and resonance identification in switching power supplies
• EMC input filter fundamentals and compliance-driven filter design concepts
• Hands-on labs include:
  • Real conducted emissions debugging in our lab including:
  • LISN-based noise observation and root cause identification
  • Debugging techniques and EMC fault finding using a spectrum analyzer and a LISN
  • Snubber tuning and switching noise mitigation demonstrations
  • EMC input filter performance verification

Day 3: Radiated Emissions Debugging and Mitigation (30 MHz and Beyond)

• Understanding radiated emissions testing and how they relate to bench measurements
• How to use current clamps to locate radiation failure sources on cables and PCBs
• PCB-level noise source localization using near-field probes
• High-speed digital and clock-related radiation mechanisms
• Hands-on labs include:
  • Current clamp-based cable and PCB radiation analysis
  • Near-field probe PCB scanning and hot-spot identification
  • High-speed clock and digital noise fault finding exercises
  • Debugging circuits with multiple clocks and switching frequencies

Day 4:  EMC Immunity Testing and Susceptibility Debugging

• Radiated and conducted immunity test fundamentals and performance criteria
• Understanding EFT, surge, and ESD disturbance mechanisms and real-world interference sources
• Debugging using ESD stress testing to locate susceptibility points and weak design areas
• MOV/TVS and Clamp-on ferrite core selection techniques for immunity improvement
• Hands-on labs include:
  • ​Locating and fixing susceptibility issues using controlled ESD stress testing
  • Noise injection techniques using current clamps for susceptibility testing
  • Using EMC input filters to improve conducted immunity susceptibility performance
  • Comparing poor versus optimized PCB layouts to evaluate layout impact on immunity behavior

Workshop Logistics

For more future dates, please contact us.

The class runs from 9:00am – 5:00pm depending on the lab on Day 1 – 3.
The class runs from 9:00am – 2:00pm on Day 4 to allow for easy travel.

​​The price includes:

• One seat at the workshop
• All necessary calculation spreadsheets used in the class
• ​Comprehensive lecture notes and detailed step-by-step lab manual
• Lunch and refreshments throughout each day
• CPD certificate – upon competition of at least 85% of the course

Workshop Locations

Montreal, Canada: We are located at the very heart of Montreal, at the Goethe Institut near Place des Arts, within a few minutes walking distance of hotels, shops, restaurants and coffee shops. You will be within a few minutes walking distance of Saint Laurent Metro Station. Montreal has excellent public transport links including Uber and Taxis are readily available and therefore you do not need a rental car for this location.

Montreal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (YUL) connects the city to the world, with direct flights from major cities across North America and Europe. From the airport, downtown Montreal is just a 20-minute ride via taxi, Uber, or public transportation (bus 747 to station Berri-UQAM and then take the green line Metro and head in the direction of Angrignon to Saint Laurent Metro station).

Known for its warm hospitality, vibrant atmosphere, and rich history, Montreal provides the perfect balance of professional development and cultural exploration. There are many affordable hotels nearby with several being located less than a 5 minute walking distance. Click here for a map of nearby hotels.

Freiham (Munich), Germany: The workshop venue is located at the state-of-the-art facilities of Würth Elektronik in a peaceful setting, perfect for focused learning. Attendees can extend their stay to enjoy the rich history and culture of Bavaria, one of Germany’s most picturesque regions.

Freiham is easily accessible by train, car, or air. The nearest airport is Munich International Airport (MUC), just a short taxi, Uber ride or train ride away. There is a direct route from Munich Airport: train S8 from the airport in the direction of Herrsching and get off at Bahnhof Freiham. There are hotels, restaurants, and shops within walking distance of our venue. You do not need a rental car for this location. There is a hotel opposite the venue called Coffee Fellows, click here for their website.

Other locations: Our workshops are only offered in the listed locations. Each session is highly lab-intensive and requires a large amount of specialized equipment. Because of this, we are unable to host workshops in other locations, as transporting the equipment across borders and through customs presents significant logistical challenges.

Prerequisites

The audience should have a degree in electrical/electronic engineering, computer science or equivalent.
These workshops are highly technical, intended for professional engineers and are not suitable for the general public without relevant qualifications.

Cancellation Policy

Workshops may be cancelled if the minimum number of attendees (5) is not met 10 days before the scheduled date. In such cases, a full refund will be issued. The maximum number of participants is capped at 20. In the event of last-minute cancellations by Biricha due to unforeseen circumstances, the liability of Biricha and its partners is limited to a refund of course fees. No refunds will be issued for confirmed participants who do not attend the scheduled session. However, if you are unable to attend, you may transfer your registration to a colleague or reschedule for a future workshop.

Testimonials

This workshop is new, be the first to write a testimonials. Here is what people say about our other workshops 🙂

• “This workshop is from Engineer to Engineer; it covers a lot of background knowledge together with practical hands-on labs”
• “Absolutely positive: it was free of marketing slides 🙂 ““The best power supply related training/seminar I’ve ever participated by far !!!”
• “Ali is a gifted teacher and succeeds in bringing complex technical challenges in a structured, well-explained way. I would recommend all engineers in the field to take the workshop !​”
• “The workshop touches very important topics in analog power supply design world. I would recommend the workshop to any power supply design engineer or researcher.”
• “Great Hands-on workshop with a good mix of theory and lab sessions. Very valuable for my daily work” 
• “I would recommend this workshop for every engineers who are involved in SMPS design. It’s worth every penny.”
• “Very good seminar! Interactive experience with valuable Hands-on”

• “Excellent workshop, very knowledgeable facilitator, good atmosphere, highly recommended”
• “Course content and pace were excellent. Room, service and location were very good. Cannot think of any improvements. Thank you!”
• “I enjoyed the course and would recommend it to others. The pace and content were good and it was very well presented. The facilities and environment were also good.”
• “The presenter did a really good job. The facility was very good, especially the coffee was great!​”
• ​“Practical, straightforward as all trainings should be.”
• “An excellent introduction to power supply design, covering both the theoretical principles and practical applications.”
• ​​”A really practical course on how to design filters”
• “Helps you “Design” EMI filters instead of trial and error.”​​
• “Though this topic is complicated the workshop is easy going; I am really looking forward to the next one ;)”