Demystifying the world of EMC

EMC standards and regulations

EMC testing is all about standards. All electronic products must meet the requirements set by standardization organizations such as IEC, CISPR, ISO, IEEE, CENELEC, ETSI, FCC, ANSI, RTCA or the MIL-STD committee. These organizations define acceptable emission and immunity levels, and compliance to their requirements is often a legal requirement for market access. There are hundreds of different EMC-related standards, which typically differ based on geographic location and expected use environment. Navigating the EMC standardization landscape can be daunting. Our EMC experts are active members of standard-defining committees and share latest updates on CISPR, IEC and ISO standards to help you stay up to date.

Compliance testing

In today’s increasingly interconnected world, it is crucial to ensure that electronic devices operate reliably in crowded electromagnetic environments. Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) testing ensures that electronic products can operate without causing or falling prey to electromagnetic interference. EMC testing is a critical step in the development and certification of electronic products. It is fundamental to creating reliable, interoperable and legally compliant electronic products. In most countries, EMC compliance testing is mandatory for product certification and market access.

In this section, we explore different challenges in emission and immunity testing and share best practices on how to improve test efficiency and reliability.

Aerospace and military EMC testing

Avoiding and overcoming EMC risks to platforms, whether airborne, shipborne or on land, which can jeopardize the security and operational capabilities of electronic systems, is a difficult task. New challenges arise from the increasing number of on-board transmitters for satellite and ground communication, self-defense, and monitoring and surveillance. In addition, there are new technologies, larger bandwidths, higher speeds and also the use of new materials, such as carbon fiber, that have an impact on the complex electromagnetic compatibility. Aerospace and military EMC testing standards are designed to minimize the risk of malfunction or worse, due to interference either within a platform or from external sources.

In this section, you will learn more about mission critical EMC measurements in space and military applications.

Automotive EMC testing

A modern vehicle is one of the most demanding electro-magnetic environments any electronic system has to operate in. High-voltage powertrains switching at high frequency, sensitive radar and lidar sensors at the heart of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) demanding interference-free operation and a growing stack of wireless technologies, like 5G, V2X, GNSS, Bluetooth, all competing for coexistence within a confined space. As vehicles become more electrified, connected and autonomous, the electromagnetic challenges multiply.

In this section, we discuss next generation automotive challenges driving EMC testing complexity and how we can address them.

Reverberation chamber testing

The automotive mega-trends of autonomous driving, connectivity and electrification require the adoption of new technologies, and they all have an impact on the complexity of EMC testing. Reverberation chambers are gaining a lot of attention in the automotive industry because of their ability to conduct realistic stress testing of modules and vehicles in a very repeatable and energy efficient way.

Follow this webinar series to learn how they operate and what benefits they can bring to your EMC testing needs.

Medical device EMC

Electromagnetic compatibility testing is crucial to ensure safety, reliability, compliance and performance for any medical device to protect patients and ensure effective medical care. Regulatory bodies, such as the FDA in the United States or the European Union’s Medical Device Regulation (MDR), require that medical devices meet specific EMC standards before they can be approved for market use.

This section will provide an overview of the latest IEC 60601 technical standard series, explore risk-based EMC testing and a real-world case study.

EMI debugging and pre-compliance testing

Take the risk out of EMI compliance tests with the best possible preparation. Pre-compliance testing is recommended to discover potential issues early in the design cycle and increase the probability of passing formal compliance tests. It can be stopped at any time, and the causes of failure can be thoroughly analyzed, tested and debugged.

Interactive webinars in this section will demonstrate how to locate and fix noise sources in your products and designs.