ELECTROMAGNETIC COMPATILITY (EMC) TESTING

Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) is defined as ability of equipment or a system to function satisfactorily in its electromagnetic environment without introducing intolerable electromagnetic disturbances to anything in that environment (IEC)

EMC ensures that electrical and electronic equipment, component, product, system does not emit unwanted signals, and/or is not affected by electromagnetic disturbance. That’s why EMC tests are categorized into two main category: emissions and immunity.

EMC testing is a requirement for most of the electrical or electronic products which might emit unwated signals or sensitive to electromagnetic disturbance. All electric devices or installations influence each other when interconnected or close to each other, e.g. interference between TV sets, GSM handsets, radios and nearby washing machine or electrical power lines. The purpose of EMC is to keep all those side effects under reasonable control. How? By applying EMC tests.

How EMC tests are mandated or regulated? The tests are either mandated by governmental ortanizations or voluntarily done since the market asks. Each country, region or union mandates their own EMC regulations. Europe regulates EMC requirements of commercial electronic products through CE marking directives like EMC and/or RED. UK started to regulate with British EMC regulations. USA, with its FCC, regulates EMC related products with its FCC standards. Japan applies VCCI marking, South Korea applies KC marking for Electromagnetic Compatibility. Not every country in the World has own EMC regulations, some of them are following or adapting European regulations, and some other ones are still ignoring EMC!

European Commission of EU published EMC Directive 2014/30/EU. The main objective of the EMC Directive is to guarantee the free movement of equipment and to create an acceptable electromagnetic environment whilst ensuring that equipment will function as intended in that environment. In order to achieve it, a harmonised and acceptable level of protection is required by the Directive, leading to full harmonisation in the EU. Some articles of EMC Directive (2014/30/EU) is written with legal terms, additional official guides can be followed to understand it better. EU published its guide about EMC, you can click here: Guide for the EMCD (Directive 2014/30/EU)

Which products require EMC testing? 

EMC tests can be done for every electrical or electronic component. Even small silicon packages, ICs, PCBs can be subjected to EMC tests. Even large installations, aircrafts, vehicles, space applications are subjected to EMC tests since they are electronic systems which can emit and immune to external signals.  

EMC Tests are required for CE marking or other certifications of any electrical equipment, machinery, or device. Supply voltage of the equipment under test (EUT) does not need to be AC, it can be supplied via DC battery or adapter. If an electrical product can electromagnetically affect its environment or it can be electromagnetically affected, EMC tests should be applied to that product. Which tests? The tests mentioned on the product’s EMC standard. 

There are various regulations and standards related to EMC tests, some of them are given below:

EMC Directive 2014/30/EU,

Radio Equipment Directive 2014/53/EU,

FCC Subpart 15B,

Avionics RTCA DO-160,

Automotive Regulation No UN ECE R10.

Purpose of EMC testing

Choose either pre-compliance or fully-compliance testing. You can either need EMC testing during product design and development or certification. Pre-compliance EMC testing is preferred by the product developers when they feel that their product is not ready for certification stage. Fully compliance EMC testing is preferred when the product owner feels that it is ready for final certification. Your purpose for EMC testing is essential while choosing the test laboratory or test equipments. Pre-compliance testing does not need to follow standards exactly and this may reduce testing costs. Fully compliance testing means that tests shall be performed according to the standard without any deviation. Fully compliance testing requires following the test standard. 

Who will perform the tests? 

EMC test experts. Have tested to external laboratory or perform tests yourself. 

If you have no EMC test equipment or laboratory, you should agree with a test laboratory that can perform the EMC tests for your product. Not every laboratory is able to perform EMC tests for every product since their testing capabilities might be limited. Send your product’s features, required standards and test plan (if you defined) to the laboratory and ask this service. After choosing the laboratory and accepting the quotation, you will ship the samples to the laboratory for testing. EMC test experts of the laboratory would schedule tests depending on the availability of the laboratory. Expertise of EMC staff who are performing the tests are essential since the EMC test setups are not so simple setups and there are lots of technical details for proper testing. 

If you have EMC test equipments or laboratory, you can perform the tests at your facility or laboratory. Self testing is acceptable for most of the industries. If you have expertise on EMC, EMC tests and standards, you can perform the tests and report the test results. If your company is large enough, you can also apply for ISO 17025 accreditation of the laboratory for independent testing. Accredited testing and test reports would convince your customers easily. 

EMC Tests

EMC tests are performed in specific test environments (RF isolated rooms or test chambers) which are defined by international standards. One of the EMC tests is Radiated Immunity (or Immunity Against Radiated Fields) in which the Equipment Under Test (EUT) is subjected to a Electric-field. E-field level depends on the standard applied. It is 3 V/m for some products, this can go up to 200 V/m. Radiated Immunity tests are mostly performed in Full Anechoic Chamber, with all surfaces are covered by ferromagnetic materials like ferrites or absorbers. For Semi Anechoic Chamber, ground plane is not covered with such materials.

Anechoic Chamber for EMC Tests

An anechoic chamber is a room designed to absorb reflections electromagnetic waves. They are also screening the RF signals coming from outside the chamber and this creates a RF isolated test space. One of the anechoic chamber types used during EMC tests is Fully Anechoic Chamber (FAC).

Testups also offers on site EMC testing services for the larger products like huge machines.

Do you have a big product?

Do you want to learn specific EMC standards for your product?

If you contact us and send your product’s features, we are informing you which EMC testing standards shall be applied. In order to get a clear response, please share below information related to your product:

• technical features,
• field of use,
• functions,
• the countries that it will be marketed.

EMC testing related services

When you search you will see various services related to EMC and EMC testing. The services starts from product design stage to installating EMC test facilities. We listed these services below:

• Preliminary Design Review
• Laboratory Testing
• OnSite Testing
• Debugging, R&D Work or Troubleshooting
• Technical Documentation for EMC certifications 
• Certification plus testing
• Consulting for EMC compliance or EMC test laboratory installation
• Supply of Test Instruments, Systems, Equipments, Tools
• Supply and Installation of Test Chambers
• Onsite Training
• Practical Training at Laboratory