An imbalance difference model has been developed to estimate the common-mode radiated emission of a PCB with an attached cable. This model, however, requires significant computation time for full-wave simulation, especially if the attached cable is long, even with a powerful computer configuration. To solve this problem, a method that approximates the imbalance difference model as an equivalent asymmetrical dipole antenna is proposed in this paper. The common-mode radiated emission can be predicted using a line integration of the common-mode current distribution which is directly estimated by the asymmetrical antenna model. Unlike existing methods, the proposed method avoids the circuit construction normally used to measure the common-mode current, and is still able to accurately predict the maximum common-mode radiation. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by comparing the predicted results with the 3D full-wave simulation and the measured data gathered in an anechoic chamber.

Common-mode (CM) radiation from a cable attached to a conducting enclosure has a typical dipole-type antenna structure, in which an equivalent noise voltage source located at the connector excites the attached cable against the enclosure to produce radiated emissions. Based on this mechanism, a simple method for predicting the CM radiation from the cable/enclosure structure was proposed. The method combines an equivalent dipole approximation with sinusoidal current distribution and CM current measurement at a specified location on the cable. Its validity was examined in comparison with the far-field measurement and finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) modeling. The predicted resonance frequencies and CM radiation levels were validated with engineering accuracy, i.e., within 30 MHz and 6 dB, respectively, from the measured and FDTD-modeled results in the frequencies above 150 MHz.