PCB Chat 153: Karen Burnham on Taking the Pain out of EMC

PCB Chat 153: Karen Burnham on Taking the Pain out of EMC

From PCB Chat by PCEA

March 27, 2026 · 23 min · Episode 359

About this episode

Karen Burnham discusses common EMC challenges in PCB design and solutions to avoid them.

Karen Burnham feels your pain - the pain of EMC, that is. Karen is an EMC engineer, instructor, and founder of EMC United, a consulting company that aims to make EMC less painful for the rest of the PCB design engineering community. Karen joins Andy Shaughnessy to discuss some of the most common EMC challenges facing our industry today, a variety of solutions for these challenges, and design practices that can help you avoid EMC problems the first place. Karen also explains why EMC needs to become part of every high-speed PCB design cycle, and not an afterthought that's only addressed when a board fails FCC. Karen will be speaking at PCB East 2026, and she offers a preview of what attendees can expect to learn in her class, "EMC 101 - Fundamentals," which takes place April 30 at the DCU Convention Center in Worcester, MA.

People in this episode

Guest: Karen Burnham

Topics covered

  • EMC
  • PCB design
  • engineering challenges
  • high-speed PCB design

Keywords

  • EMC United
  • PCB East 2026
  • EMC 101 - Fundamentals

Mentioned in this episode

Places: Worcester, MA

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