EMC knowledge overcomes problems in motion systems

Trained as an electrical engineer, Mart Coenen started his working life at the Philips Natlab. At that time, there was no legislation or regulation in the field of EMC, but within Philips, they felt it was important for the employees to have a thorough knowledge of the subject. “Together with Jap Goedbloed, I set up the first EMC training course in 1981. At first, it was an internal training at CTT, but soon it was extended to a national course organized by Pato, later PAO. By now, this is perhaps the longest-running course they offer,” Coenen proudly says. In 1988, he became involved in the international standardization of EMC. To this day, he’s still active in all kinds of committees dealing with the laws and regulations concerning EMC, ESD and electrical safety.

In 1994, Coenen started his own company, EMCMCC, driven by a lot of work with smaller clients, which he couldn’t (or wasn’t allowed to) serve under the Philips’ flag. He worked for the Rotterdam Port Authority, which was forced to automate its container transshipment processes due to the many strikes. From his own company, he also worked as a consultant for ASML, where he was involved in the 450-mm wafer project. For every movement in the process, the exact location of the wafer had to be determined. This was difficult because the disturbances in the system caused measurement errors. “Within nine months, we developed an entirely new concept, which was implemented. Partly because of this, there were fewer disturbances, and therefore, less calculation work was required to determine the exact location. As a result, the manufacturing process of wafers could be scaled up from 200 to 400 wafers per hour.”