Commercial EMI tests for CE mark and FCC part 15 cover the bulk of consumer and industrial electronic products. Often, if you don’t design for the Military or Automotive sectors, your products fall in the commercial category. Since these tests must cover a huge segment of devices, there are many variables to factor in to any test system design or decision.
There are two approaches taken by most consumer and industrial equipment manufacturers when they decide to add EMI testing capability in house rather than outsourcing all the tests. One is to build a fully compliant facility, including the necessary shielded chamber, test equipment, software and test accessories. The other approach is to buy some equipment to start with, but still outsource much of the final compliance testing to a certified lab. This latter approach is often referred to as pre-compliance, indicating that some initial testing has been done during product development or just prior to sending the product to a certified lab.
Both approaches have merit, and each has a certain time involved in recouping the investment in equipment and training. The spreadsheet linked below may help you consider the options and probable time to break even for your various options.
Some questions to consider before you invest in equipment could include:- What is the end goal, a fully compliant lab, or will final testing always be outsourced?
- What part of the standard are we failing with our current products?
- Are there any parts of the CE or FCC tests that would easily be tested by our current staff?
- What level of confidence in passing CE or FCC do we require before sending the equipment out for testing?
Keep in mind that there are three major types of EMC tests performed on most products. First is testing the RF emissions that come from your product, referred to as EMI. Second is immunity testing, basically radiating your product with RF signals and making sure it will continue to operate. The last type of testing is often called transient testing. Transient testing ensures that your device will survive common power system problems found on the AC mains such as power surges, power sags (brown-outs) and harmonics caused by switching systems.
