Today’s book for review is “PCB Design for Real-World EMI Control” by Mr. Bruce R.Archambeault (ISBN  1-4020-7130-2). I got this book from one of my colleagues at work and thought i should give it a read – which i eventually did!

What is in it?

Unlike many other technical books, this book does not contain densely populated text that puts off the novice reader. The total number of pages is around 250 and book itself looks skinny. But given the fact that the book concentrates only on EMI/EMC, it should be said it covers all the important topics. The books starts of with fundamentals and then the author moves on to explain EMC sources, EMC filters and some tips on what to do when the product fails EMC testing. The book ends with a teaser on 3D EMC computational modelling- which is basis of the next book by the same author – well planned, i should say!

Content:

The content page can be viewed from google books here – Contents . The first few chapters are basic and probably can be neglected by experienced engineers. The later chapters offer new and interesting content – particularly the chapter on how to use signal integrity tools for EMC issues. Mr. Archambeault has tried to provide a lot of information with least possible mathematics and formulas, which i think is a good approach to teach people with various backgrounds. On the other hand, the chapters are too short and it probably would take a couple of days to finish the whole book!

How is it to read?

The book lacks a flow, or so i felt. One reason could be that i was aware of most of the concepts discussed in the book and was not reading the book from a PCB designers perspective and hence the feeling.

Who is it aimed at?

It would be perfect for beginners and could serve well as a quick reference for PCB design doubts, but might not be suit that well for intermediate / advanced readers.

How much does it cost?

The book costs around $125, during the time of this post, in Amazon – PCB Design for Real-World EMI Control (The Springer International Series in Engineering and Computer Science)

The bottom Line:

There are a number of EMC and PCB design books available and where this book over powers the rest is debatable. If i had extra cash, then i would go for this book. If not, i would prefer sticking with much general texts that would probably provide 80% of the knowledge this book provides.

Target Audience : Beginner – Intermediate

Book Rating : 3.5/5

Verdict : Buy if rich or else borrow.