{"id":4101,"date":"2026-07-21T14:37:04","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T14:37:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theemcnews.co.uk\/?page_id=4101"},"modified":"2026-07-21T14:38:25","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T14:38:25","slug":"beating-the-emc-challenge","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/theemcnews.co.uk\/index.php\/beating-the-emc-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"Beating the EMC challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

As consumer electronic devices become smarter and more interconnected, the pressure to ensure their EMC capability keeps on growing. CET&D explores how manufacturers and their test professionals can satisfy this demand.<\/p><\/div>

Every day our world becomes more saturated with electronic devices. And the products themselves are increasingly complex, cramming larger numbers of more powerful technologies into tighter spaces. But while this might be a boon for end users, it presents challenges for designers and manufacturers whose products need to pass Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) testing before they can hit the market.<\/p>

\u201cElectrification and digitalization are transforming entire sectors including electric vehicles, charging infrastructure, renewable energy systems, smart homes and smart factories,\u201d says Dieter Fr\u00f6hlich, MD of EMC lab technology at the CSA Group, which has EMC testing and certification facilities across North America.<\/p>

And he believes: \u201cCoexistence in dense electromagnetic environments is one of the key reasons why EMC testing has become more critical. For example, a modern car can contain hundreds of electronic control units, multiple high-power inverters, various radar and camera systems, and several wireless communication links. All of these must work simultaneously and reliably over many years, in diverse environmental conditions.\u201d<\/p>

Clearly, the days are long gone when you could simply wrap your consumer electronic device in a metal shield and hope for the best.<\/p>

As Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Laborda, technical director at global testing, inspection and certification firm Applus+ Laboratories, says: \u201cHigher switching frequencies, steeper edge rates, and mixed signal SoCs (systems-on-a-chip) increase both emissions and susceptibility, while miniaturized enclosures and cost-optimized designs limit the space available for filtering, shielding and grounding.\u201d<\/p>

As a result, he says: \u201cMany issues that could once be solved at enclosure level now require EMC-aware PCB, power-distribution and firmware design from the outset.\u201d<\/p>

Lack of skills<\/strong><\/p>

However, these are issues for which many manufacturers are unprepared. As entire classes of existing products (and some that didn\u2019t previously exist) suddenly find themselves crammed with electronics and even internet connections, firms may find they lack the skills to assess the compliance issues they face.<\/p>

\u201cModern EMC requires cross-discipline knowledge (RF design, PCB layout, power<\/p>

electronics, software, radios), and teams often lack experienced EMC engineers,\u201d says John Michalowicz, senior RF test engineer at Arizona-based Compliance Testing.<\/p>

As a result, product engineers may misjudge the standards they are achieving. \u201cConfusion between pre-compliance measurements and full compliance results leads to false confidence,\u201d he says.<\/p>

Another issue is increasing supply chain complexity, with manufacturers incorporating ready-made, third-party components from a wide variety of sources into their products. This is common if, say, you feel the need to add WiFi or Bluetooth capability to an existing product line in order to remain competitive.<\/p>

\u00a0<\/div>

\u201cCOTS (commercial off-the-shelf) modules and sub-assemblies may carry unknown EMC behavior,\u201d says Michalowicz. \u201cIntegrators must validate combined system effects.\u201d<\/p>

These combinatorial complications raise their own challenges. \u201cComplex multi-board assemblies and embedded radios introduce aggregate emissions and non-linear behaviors that are difficult to predict,\u201d Michalowicz says.<\/p>

\u201cThe combination of higher digital edge rates (GHz-class clocks), mixed-signal circuits, and tight mechanical packaging increases both emissions and susceptibility, making early design practices and iterative pre-compliance testing essential.\u201d<\/p>

Stricter rules<\/strong><\/p>

Yet just as many firms find themselves having to meet compliance standards they\u2019ve never encountered before, the rules themselves are getting stricter for everyone.<\/p>

In particular, the scope of EMC compliance is broadening to encompass an ever-greater range of technologies and products. Where previously a product might have had to be tested for conducted\/radiated emissions and immunity, it may now need to meet standards for wireless coexistence and over-the-air (OTA) testing.<\/p>

\u201cA good example is IEC 61000-4-3,\u201d says Laborda at Applus+ Labs. \u201cOlder editions typically limited radiated immunity testing to 1GHz (or up to 2.5GHz in some product standards to cover 2.4GHz WiFi), because products seldom operated above those frequencies.<\/p>

\u201cAs modern devices increasingly rely on newer WiFi, Bluetooth, cellular technologies, and other RF services at higher frequencies, the standard has evolved to support extended test ranges \u2013 in many cases up to 6GHz (and not limited to 6GHz, as higher ranges may be defined when required), which has become a widely adopted benchmark in many product standards.\u201d<\/p>

Increased test fidelity is another major pressure, particularly for wireless devices, as tests are now designed to more closely match real-world conditions. Michalowicz gives the example of MIMO (multiple input, multiple output) and OTA performance requirements, which focus on evaluating the efficiency and effectiveness of devices using multiple antennas.<\/p>

And some domains may impose their own strictures. \u201cIn medical, for example, the trend is towards higher immunity expectations and more realistic test scenarios,\u201d says Fr\u00f6hlich. \u201cThis helps to ensure that life-support and diagnostic devices remain safe and effective, even in very harsh electromagnetic environments. In automotive, EMC is now tightly linked with functional safety.\u201d<\/p>

That need for safety is in turn driving a requirement for EMC limits and immunity levels that, says Michalowicz, \u201care generally more aggressive than consumer standards and explicitly address power-electronics disturbances from traction inverters and chargers\u201d.<\/p>

Product regulators, and many customers, now have higher expectations, and these are quickly enshrined in standards.<\/p>

Michalowicz also points to IEC 61000-4-3 as an example of a commercial EMC standard that demands high RF-immunity levels, as well as the additional immunity tests required for safety-critical equipment.<\/p>

\u00a0<\/div>

Laborda adds: \u201cOne significant regulatory challenge today is the progressive expansion and overlap of EMC and RF-related requirements across sectors, driven by electrification and pervasive wireless connectivity. It is increasingly common for a single product to fall under multiple product standards simultaneously.\u201d<\/p>

And this pressure is made more onerous by the fact that you must comply not with just one local set of standards and regulations, but many.<\/p>

Few manufacturers design products for a single market these days. And global distribution puts you at the mercy of multiple regulatory regimes, such as the FCC in the US, the Radio Equipment Directive (RED) in the EU, ISED in Canada, and so on.<\/p>

Attitude problems<\/strong><\/p>

However, perhaps the biggest hurdle designers face is themselves \u2013 and specifically their attitude towards testing and compliance.<\/p>

There are common errors that product engineers make. According to Fr\u00f6hlich, these include: \u201cNot reserving enough space for shielding and grounding concepts; mixing noisy and sensitive circuits on the same PCB area; poor cable routing and connector concepts; and a lack of consideration for worst-case operating modes during testing.\u201d<\/p>

He also raises the issue of an incomplete or outdated understanding of standards among designers. But worse still is the assumption that testing and certification can be some kind of tick-box exercise, left to the end of the development cycle.<\/p>

\u201cA frequent problem is treating EMC as a test event rather than a design discipline,\u201d says Laborda. \u201cTeams arrive at the laboratory with fixed mechanical constraints and no margin for EMC mitigation, resulting in avoidable failures.\u201d<\/p>

EMC planning needs to be done in the early stages of a project. Yet steps such as PCB layout, grounding strategies, and internal cable routing are carried out in an ad hoc, per-device basis, rather than being implemented in a consistent and disciplined way across all of a manufacturer\u2019s products. This is particularly true in fast-moving sectors like consumer products.<\/p>

Having a standardized approach that has been shown to work on successful projects can help avoid many testing headaches, and speed time-to-market.<\/p>

No-one is saying that product designers should be EMC experts. They can\u2019t be, because this is a specialist area and one where the goalposts are constantly shifting. Those companies that are specialists in EMC testing are constantly innovating and introducing new capabilities in order to keep up.<\/p>

For example, advancing wireless technologies have led to the introduction of a broader and more complex suite of test methods.<\/p>

\u201cBeyond MIMO, OTA and spatial performance measurements, newer regulatory mechanisms \u2013 such as Automated Frequency Coordination (AFC) for 6GHz devices and enhanced Dynamic Frequency Selection (DFS) requirements in 5GHz \u2013 are adding substantive test obligations,\u201d explains Michalowicz.<\/p>

\u00a0<\/div>

Among the capabilities developed by EMC testing firms, he highlights:<\/p>

\u2013 Expanded reverberation chamber and Compact Antenna Test Range (CATR) capabilities for OTA and MIMO testing.<\/p>

\u2013 Automated pre-compliance test suites and turnkey pre-scan services (including near-field probes and radiated pre-scans) to catch problems earlier.<\/p>

\u2013 Advanced near-field measurement tools and imaging to localize hot spots on PCBs and cables quickly.<\/p>

\u2013 Hybrid test setups that combine conducted and radiated methods, and bench-level immunity simulators that emulate real-world disturbances.<\/p>

\u2013 Faster test automation and data analytics, such as scripting, databases of failure modes, and digital reporting to shorten iteration cycles.<\/p>

\u2013 System-level and in-vehicle test capabilities with representative harnesses, loads and DUT (device under test) mounting fixtures.<\/p>

Along with these capabilities come new and expanded services, such as coexistence testing, wireless performance in contested spectrum, and consulting to help guide designs from an early stage. As Michael Schafer, CEO at Compliance Testing, argues: \u201cDesign engineers ought to reach out to their test lab for guidance and support if they feel they do not know the regulatory requirements they will need to meet.\u201d<\/p>

Indeed, manufacturers can effectively tackle all of these challenges by taking advantage of that guidance, and integrating EMC considerations as a key element of product design.<\/p>

According to Fr\u00f6hlich: \u201cThe good news is that manufacturers who treat EMC as a design can still achieve fast and reliable certification.\u201d\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As consumer electronic devices become smarter and more interconnected, the pressure to ensure their EMC capability keeps on growing. CET&D explores how manufacturers and their test professionals can satisfy this demand. Every day our world becomes more saturated with electronic devices. And the products themselves are increasingly complex, cramming larger… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"elementor_header_footer","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-4101","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theemcnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theemcnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theemcnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theemcnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theemcnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4101"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/theemcnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4105,"href":"https:\/\/theemcnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4101\/revisions\/4105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theemcnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}