The IC, as the center of control in modern electronic equipment, plays a crucial role supporting progress in this equipment. As the functionality provided by the latest electronic equipment continues to advance, even higher integration levels and even higher speeds are required in their ICs. At the same time, the popularity of portable electronic equipment has led to demands for further miniaturization and lower operating voltages. To respond to these needs and demands, IC fabrication processes have moved to ever finer feature sizes, progressing in tandem with other IC developments.

Due to these advances, IC malfunctions due to noise is becoming a significant issue, and inadequate electromagnetic compatibility (EMC: the ability to operate in the presence of noise) is now the focus of much concern.

Since EMC problems largely depend on the PCB design, until now, EMC problems have been seen as an issue for end product design, and workarounds have largely focused on the end product. However, due to the lower voltages and higher speeds of the latest equipment, it has become harder then ever to distinguish between noise and normal signals. At the same time, the increasing functionality of advanced ICs has made analyses related to EMC more difficult, and this in turn makes workarounds in the end product harder to achieve.

With today's shorter product cycles, the time and effort required to achieve the required EMC at the end product level has become a significant factor, and improved resistance to noise at the independent IC level is becoming increasingly important.

In Japan, EMC standards for electronic equipment as end products are regulated by a variety of laws covering electromagnetic radiation and consumer products. Similar laws are in force around the world, such as the IEC regulations on electronic equipment that have been in force in Europe since 1996.

In contrast, EMC standards for electronic device such as ICs are still at the stage where the IEC is working on the standardization of test procedures. Although evaluation procedures have been standardized for EMI, study has only just begun on lectromagnetic susceptibility (EMS).

In addition to EMI measurement in conformance with the standards being developed, Panasonic is also developing evaluation methods for EMS such as those described below and preparing an environment that will allow independent evaluation of ICs.

Panasonic models the noise entering an IC as being of two types: conductive noise and radiation noise, and aims at standardization with common programs and noise evaluation boards that improve observability to eliminate dependence on the user's mounting boards and software.