EMC Pre-compliance Testing: "Preparatory conformity tests"

EMC Pre-compliance test during product development

If you are a developer, you know that new products are not ready for the market until they meet various requirements in areas such as quality, operational safety, environmental compatibility, interference immunity, etc. Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC), i.e. the unwanted influence of electronic assemblies on each other due to electrical or electromagnetic effects, plays an important role here. Especially in the modern world of high-speed wireless communication - WLAN, mobile communications, 5G, IoT, etc. - this is not only a question of function and safety, but often also a legal issue. On the one hand, new products must not be susceptible to interspersed interference; on the other hand, they must not themselves create interference for other devices.

Conformity tests according to various specifications and standards are carried out in special test laboratories. Since the time spent in such test labs and the high-end equipment used there are expensive, it is not possible to have constant access to them in all phases of a product development. In the best case, therefore, only final approvals take place in such a laboratory. For tests during the development process, so-called pre-compliance tests, i.e. preparatory conformity tests, are required. They use simpler measuring devices such as common spectrum analyzers and VNA. These are affordable for the developer and they allow early detection of sources of interference. The effectiveness of adjustments or corrections to such discovered sources of interference can also be tested during development. In this way, many problems can be solved in advance and the repeated, expensive visit to the test laboratory can be saved.

For pre-compliance testing, Meilhaus Electronic offers various low-cost measuring instruments from well-known brand manufacturers in different performance classes. These include ▸spectrum analyzers, ▸VNA/vector network analyzers, ▸multifunction oscilloscopes and ▸signal generators. In addition to the measurement equipment, pre-compliance tests also require special accessories such as shielding, antennas for targeted interference scattering, EMC probes, etc. This allows the DUT to be tested in an environment that is as free of interference as possible or to be specifically confronted with test interference. Here Meilhaus Electronic also offers a ▸wide range of possibilities and products.