Design practical EMI filters using LC, π, T, and multi-stage topologies, with real examples and simulations.
EMI isn’t about more parts — it’s the right parts, placed right, proven right.
What you’ll learn
- Understand what EMI is and what to do about it.
- Differentiate and separate Common Mode and Differentail Mode noise.
- Pick right filter toplogy based on application.
- Learn filter damping techniques.
- Design small and effecient filters with a focus on stability (Middlebrook’s Theorem).
Course Content
- Module 1 – The Basics –> 5 lectures • 19min.
- Module 2 – Noise measurement / LISNs –> 6 lectures • 14min.
- Module 3 – CM/DM Noise Modeling –> 5 lectures • 34min.
- Module 4 – HW Components & Real‑World Behavior –> 3 lectures • 13min.
- Module 5 – Topologies –> 4 lectures • 11min.
- Module 6 – Filter Design Pre-requisite –> 4 lectures • 36min.
- Module 7 – Input Filter Stability (Middlebrooks) –> 5 lectures • 24min.
- Case A – Input Filter Design –> 7 lectures • 1hr 32min.
- Case B – Output Filter Design –> 2 lectures • 24min.
- Module 8 – Design for First-Pass EMC –> 1 lecture • 7min.
Requirements
EMI isn’t about more parts — it’s the right parts, placed right, proven right.
I’m Sam Tabaja, M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering, with 10+ years in the automotive and energy industries. I learned EMI the hard way: long nights, failed chamber tests, and “mystery” noise that didn’t care about my beautiful schematics.
Like you, I tried to learn EMI and filter design from YouTube videos, app notes, and random PDFs — each one gave me a piece of the puzzle, but never the full picture.
This course is where I put those pieces together for you.
What this course is (and isn’t)
This course is for someone who already has a working converter (and its control loop) and now needs to design EMI filters around it so it behaves in the real world and passes EMC.
We do not redesign the converter control loop or compensate it from scratch. We assume the converter and control are fixed, and we focus on what you can do with input and output filters to tame EMI.
It’s designed as a beginner-to-advanced path:
- You can start with only basic circuit knowledge
- You finish being able to design and reason about real EMI filters for real hardware
What you’ll learn
By the end of the course, you’ll be able to:
- Understand what EMI actually is, where it comes from in converters, and why you need to worry about it, or not 😉
- Separate common-mode vs differential-mode noise and trace how each one flows through your system.
- Understand the global EMC standards that are likely to apply to your application and what they’re really asking you to limit.
- Choose between LC, π (Pi), T, and 2-stage LC topologies and know when each makes sense for an input filter.
- Design AC/DC line filters (both input and output) based on target attenuation and corner frequencies.
- Use impedance vs frequency curves of capacitors to design output C filters that hit the noise where it lives (picking caps at their impedance minima to target specific noise bands).
- Simulate and check your filters in SIMetrix, including impedance and frequency response.
- Recognize when a filter might interact badly with the converter (CPL behavior, stability concerns) so you don’t fix EMI and break everything else.
- Apply placement, grounding, and routing best practices so your filter works in hardware, not just in SPICE.
- Walk away with downloadable appendicies that cover design equations for different filter topologies.
- Walk away with an editable excel sheet that helps you decide on a single vs two-stage LC filter.
- Walk away with a printable, handbook-style module you can keep next to your bench for quick reference on placement and routing tips.
Practical design examples inside
This isn’t just slides and theory — we walk through two full, practical design workflows:
- Input Filter Design Example
- Start from a noisy, already-built converter
- Design an LC input filter, then upgrade it to a 2-stage LC filter, and then a π filter
- See how each change moves the corner frequencies and improves attenuation
- Understand the effect of source/load impedance and when extra stages stop helping
- Output Filter / Capacitor Selection Example
- Design an output C filter for a converter with known noise issues
- Use capacitor impedance vs frequency curves to select parts whose lowest impedance lines up with the noise peaks
- See how mixing different capacitor types/values shapes the overall impedance and the noise performance
These examples are built to mirror what you’ll face in the lab:
you have a converter, you see noise at certain frequencies, and you need a filter that works, not a perfect academic example.
How we’ll learn
Over about 4.5 hours of focused content, we’ll use:
- Crisp slides and clear diagrams to build intuition
- Step-by-step derivations only where they actually help design decisions
- SIMetrix simulations to visualize impedance, resonances, and filter behavior
- Checklists and placement tips for turning designs into quieter boards and better chances of first-pass compliance