Many engineers focus primarily on emissions. The better the fit between your company and your test lab, the better for everyone involved. Thus, there is a good chance that you will be doing iterative testing at an EMC lab. As such, they sometimes find it difficult to assess whether or not an EMC test lab will be a good fit for their company’s products.Ĭompounding the problem is the fact that, in my 25 years of experience, I have observed that if a product has been designed without taking EMI/EMC into consideration, there is a 95% probability that the product will fail at least one of the tests required for EMC compliance. Consequently, compliance tasks are often delegated to electrical or mechanical engineers or technicians, many of whom aren’t as familiar with the field as they would like to be. Because it is such a specialized area, many companies aren’t large enough to employ a full-time compliance engineer. It comes complete with its own requirements, test equipment, test methodologies, trouble-shooting techniques, and even has its own vernacular. But I have observed that many engineers who are forced to deal with it find the field completely frustrating. Having devoted nearly my entire career to the field, I find it utterly fascinating. These range from assessing the technical capabilities of a lab, to logistical considerations, to common technical oversights made in the EMC design of a product.Įlectromagnetic interference and compatibility (EMI/EMC) is a specialized discipline which can best be described as an esoteric hybrid between physics and electrical engineering. The purpose of this article is as stated in the title: It will give technicians, engineers, engineering managers, and program managers 10 important things to consider before having EMC compliance testing done on their product.
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