Karen Burnham, EMC United

Karen Burnham has worked in and around the aerospace, defense, automotive, and broader consulting world since 1996. She has a BS in Physics, an MS in Electrical Engineering, and a talent for translating EMC to English. She has managed requirements and test planning for NASA and the Dream Chaser spaceship, among others. She has done troubleshooting on electric vehicles for Ford Motor Company and other companies. She has initiated innovative SBIRs and STTRs through government centers and worked on classified programs. She has also consulted on projects across a wide swath of industries and sits on multiple international standards committees, landing her in her current role of Vice President of Standards for the IEEE EMC Society. Ms. Burnham founded EMC United, Inc. in 2024 to focus on helping companies and hardware designers solve EMC problems, ideally before they even start. She believes that, far from being black magic, EMC can be understandable (and even fun!), and she hopes to spread that passion more widely.

EMC Challenges in EV Systems

September 27, 2025

Karen Burnham, EMC United

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In a high-power system, such as the high-voltage side of electric vehicles (EVs), even small imperfections in the topology and layout inside the box can have major consequences in EMC testing. Parasitic pathways that would be inconsequential in a low-voltage design can allow limit-busting amounts of noise to escape in a high-voltage system. Learn more from Karen Burnham about the best practices, simulation/analysis, and expert design reviews that are critical for EV compliance and on-time deliveries.

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