Grounding

• Grounding is one of the primary ways of minimizing unwanted

noise and of producing a safe system
• A safe system is not necessarily a noise-free system.
• Grounds fall into:
– Safety grounds (do not carry current during normal
operation) ;Connected to earth are called earth grounds
– Signal grounds

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 Grounding objectives

The basic objective of grounding must always be to first make

it safe and then make it work properly without compromising
the safety in facility wiring, this is usually accomplished by the
following:
1. Insuring the operation of a protective device (fuse or circuit
breaker) in the event of a fault (i.e., contact between the hot
conductor and the equipment enclosure)
2. Minimizing the potential difference between conductive
enclosures and other metal objects
3. Providing lightning protection

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 Mandatory grounding

• Ground lightning arrestors.

• Ground neutral conductor of

the ac power distribution
transformer secondary

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• Fig 3-2 Ground conductor carries
current only during fault
until safety device blows

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 Noise control

• Noise can be differential

mode (hot to neutral) or
common mode (neutral to
ground) as shown in Fig. 3-
6. Grounding, however, will
only have an effect on the
common-mode noise.

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 ZSRP (Zero signal reference plane (ZSRP)

• The most effective method of obtaining a

low-impedance ground over the widest range
of frequencies for physically separated units
of equipment is to connect them to a solid
ground plane

• ZSRP has several orders of magnitude less

impedance than a single ground wire of any
practical dimensions, and this low impedance
exists over a frequency range that spans
many orders of magnitude (i.e., dc to
hundreds of megahertz or more)

• In many cases, a solid ZSRP is not practical; in

which case, a grid can be used to simulate a
solid plane with good results. A grid can be
thought of as a plane with holes in it.

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 Earth ground

• Fig3.7 • The earth is not a

low impedance, and
it is far from being an
equi-potential. It is
more likely the cause
of noise and
interference than the
solution to these
problems.

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 Grounding myths

1. The earth is a low-impedance path for ground current. False, the

impedance of the earth is orders of magnitude greater than the
impedance of a copper conductor.

2. The earth is an equipotential. False, this is clearly not true as a result of (1).

3. The impedance of a conductor is determined by its resistance.

4. To operate with low noise, a circuit or system must be connected to an

earth ground. False, because airplanes, satellites, cars, and battery
powered laptop computers all operate fine without a ground connection.
As a matter of fact, an earth ground is more likely to be the cause of a
noise problem. More electronic system noise problems are resolved by
removing (or isolating) a circuit from earth ground than by connecting it to
earth ground.

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5. An earth ground is unidirectional, with current only flowing into the ground.
False, because current must flow in loops, any current that flows into the
ground must also flow out of the ground somewhere else.

6. An isolated receptacle is not grounded. False, the term ‘‘isolated’’ refers only
to the method by which a receptacle is grounded, not if it is grounded.

7. A system designer can name ground conductors by the type of the current
that they should carry (i.e., signal, power, lightning, digital, analog, noisy,
etc.), and the electrons will comply and only flow in the appropriately
designated conductors. Obviously false.

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 Signal grounds

Three basic objectives of signal grounding are as follows:

1. Not to interrupt the ground return path
2. Return the current through the smallest loop possible
3. Be aware of possible common impedance coupling in the
ground

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 Ground impedance

• Minimize ground noise

voltage by:
– Minimize ground impedance-
use ground plane/grid
– Force ground currents thru
another path- especially for
analog, use single point
grounding

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 Current paths-low & high frequency
• At low frequencies current
will follow A to B –path of
least resistance
• At high frequencies it will
take the path of least
inductance

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 • Grounding is hierarchical:
– Integrated circuits
– board
– system
• Signal grounds :
– Single point DC to 20 KHz
– Multipoint
– Hybrid

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 PCB ground structure

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 Digital tape recorder grounding

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 Single point grounds

• Not be used with circuits

at vastly different current
levels
• Most critical circuit should
be near the primary
ground point

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 • Do a block schematic
before doing PCB
layout

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 • The connection between
each circuit and ground
should be kept as short
as possible (under one
cm)
• Ground plane thickness
has no impact ay high
frequencies-why?

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 Common impedance coupling
• Two or more circuits share a common ground
and one or more of the following conditions
exist:
1. A high-impedance ground (at high frequency,
this is caused by too much inductance; at
low-frequency this is caused by too much
resistance).
2. A large ground current.
3. A very sensitive, low-noise margin circuit,
connected to the ground. Solution:

– Single point for low frequency

– Multipoint ground for high frequency

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 Chassis ground

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 Problems due to Ground loop

1. A difference in ground potential VG between

the two grounds may couple a noise voltage
VN into the circuit as shown in Fig. 3-33. The
ground potential is usually the result of
other currents flowing through the ground
impedance.

2. Any strong magnetic fields can induce a noise

voltage into the loop formed by the signal
conductors and the ground, which is
designated as ‘‘ground loop’’.

3. The signal current has multiple return paths

and may, especially at low frequency, flow
through the ground connection and not
return on the signal return conductor.

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If ground loops are a problem, then they can be dealt with in one of three ways
as follows:

1. Avoid them by using single-point or hybrid grounds. This technique is

usually only effective at low frequencies, and often it makes the situation
worse when attempted at high frequency.

2. Tolerate them by minimizing ground impedance (e.g., by using a ZSRP)

and/or by increasing the circuit noise margin (e.g, by increasing the signal
voltage level or by using a balanced circuit).

3. Break them by using one of the techniques discussed below.

The ground loop shown in Fig. 3-33 can be broken by one of the following:
1. Transformers
2. Common-mode chokes
3. Optical couplers

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 • Transformer;
– Limited frequency response
– No DC pass thru
– External Mu metal shield to reduce
magnetic pick-up as well as
Faraday shield between primary
and secondary to reduce inter
winding capacitance-RCA

• Opto
– Used when large ground voltage
differences exists
– Works with digital, not with analog
• Balanced:
– Audio equipments (May also use
isolation transformers)
– Better the balance better is the
CMRR. At high frequencies it is
difficult to achieve balance

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 High frequency analysis of common mode choke

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• Many systems contain multiple ground planes, for
example, separate analog and digital ground planes,
which are only connected together at one point,
• Having separate ground or reference planes for a
system results in efficient antennas being designed
into the system.
• In almost all cases, a system will perform better, both
functionally and EMC wise, with a single reference
plane.

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 Amplifier shield

Eliminate C1s and C3s l

feed back loop by shorting C2s

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 Reduction by the order of 50 with Guard

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 SUMMARY

• All conductors, including ground conductors, have finite

impedance, which consists of both resistance and inductance.
• A ground conductor longer than 1/20 wavelength is not a low
impedance.
• Grounds fall into two categories, safety grounds and signal
grounds.
• The ac power ground is of little practical value as a signal
ground.
• The earth is not a very low impedance and is polluted with
noisy power currents; it is far from an equipotential.
•

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• Make connections to earth ground only when required for
safety.
• Do not look to an earth ground as a solution to your EMC
problems.
• Single-point grounds should only be used at low frequencies,
typically at frequencies below 100 kHz.
• Multipoint grounds should be used at high frequencies,
typically above 100 kHz, and with digital circuits.
• One purpose of a good ground system is to minimize the
noise voltage produced when two or more ground currents
flow through a common ground impedance.
•

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• The best way to make a low-impedance ground connection over the widest

• range of frequencies, between separate pieces of equipment, is by connecting

them with a plane or grid.

• To minimize ground noise voltage, At low-frequency, control the ground topology

(direct the current).

• At high-frequency, control the ground impedance.

• Ground loops can be controlled by:

– Avoiding them
– Tolerating them
– Breaking them
• Five common ways to break a ground loop are:
– Isolation transformers
– Common-mode chokes
– Optical couplers
– Differential amplifiers
– Guard shield

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