In Compliance: The Compliance Information Resource for Electrical Engineers logo
A Guide to
EMC Test
Software Validation
PLUS
System-Level Simulation
Solutions for EOS and ESD

The Development of Proficiency Testing Programme for
Electrical and Mechanical Safety Tests

Product Liability
Marketing Defects

PLUS
System-Level Simulation
Solutions for EOS and ESD

The Development of Proficiency Testing Programme for
Electrical and Mechanical Safety Tests

Product Liability
Marketing Defects

December 2020
December 2020
Volume 12 l Number 12
Contents
Complying with ISO 17025 Edition 2017, Section 7
By Jack McFadden
Is your test software the goose that has laid its golden eggs or is your software misbehaving? Does it run amok? The purpose of this article is to provide an understanding of the software validation requirements, the validation rationale, and suggest independent tools that will allow you to develop your own test software validation process.
By Karthik Srinivasan and Norman Chang
The electronic industry has embraced simulation to address several complex design challenges, but reliability is still mostly dealt with best design practices and tested with prototypes. In this article, we present how modeling and simulation approaches can help designers perform virtual prototyping and uncover reliability issues, especially EOS/ESD, before going for physical prototypes.
By S.L. Mak and H.K. Lau
This article explains the development process of a proficiency testing programme that is suitable for electrical and mechanical safety tests. The process for testing the homogeneity and stability of specimens is also discussed.
Liability for Words and Pictures You Use for Marketing
By Kenneth Ross
The way you market your product can turn an otherwise safely designed product into an unsafe product that causes injury and creates liability for the manufacturer and product seller.
hands typing on a keyboard
electricity
someone checking off a box
man and woman working together
In Compliance logo
In Compliance Magazine
ISSN 1948-8254 (print)
ISSN 1948-8262 (online)
is published by

Same Page Publishing Inc.
451 King Street, #458
Littleton, MA 01460
tel: (978) 486-4684
fax: (978) 486-4691

©Copyright 2020 Same Page Publishing, Inc. all rights reserved

Contents may not be reproduced in any form without the prior consent of the publisher.
While every attempt is made to provide accurate information, neither the publisher nor the authors accept any liability for errors or omissions.

editor/
publisher
Lorie Nichols
lorie.nichols@incompliancemag.com
(978) 873-7777
business development director
Sharon Smith
sharon.smith@incompliancemag.com
(978) 873-7722
production director
Erin C. Feeney
erin.feeney@incompliancemag.com
(978) 873-7756
marketing director
Ashleigh O’Connor
ashleigh.oconnor@incompliancemag.com
(978) 873-7788
circulation director
Alexis Evangelous
alexis.evangelous@incompliancemag.com
(978) 486-4684
features editor
William von Achen
bill.vonachen@incompliancemag.com
(978) 486-4684
senior contributors
Bruce Archambeault
bruce@brucearch.com
Leonard Eisner
Leo@EisnerSafety.com
Daryl Gerke
dgerke@emiguru.com
columns contributors
EMC Concepts Explained
Bogdan Adamczyk
adamczyb@gvsu.edu
Hot Topics in ESD
EOS/ESD Association, Inc
info@esda.org
advertising
For information about advertising contact Sharon Smith at sharon.smith@incompliancemag.com.
subscriptions
In Compliance Magazine subscriptions are free to qualified subscribers in North America.
Subscriptions outside North America are $129 for 12 issues. The digital edition is free.
Please contact our circulation department at circulation@incompliancemag.com
The EERC logo
Visit incompliancemag.com/EERC to access your free resources today!
remembering Don Heirman
Donald Heirman1940-2020
D

on Heirman, age 80, died on October 30, 2020 from complications due to Covid-19. He was born in Mishawaka, Indiana and after graduation from Purdue University and with his active military duty in the Pentagon, he started his professional career with Bell Laboratories in 1963 in New Jersey. He later became the manager of its Global Product Compliance Lab as a distinguished member the technical staff. Upon retirement from Bell Labs, he started his own consulting business—Don HEIRMAN Consultants—specializing in standards education and training in his discipline of Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC), in which he remained active until his death. He was a communicant of St. Leo the Great Catholic Church in Lincroft, NJ for over 50 years, serving as an usher on Saturday night masses, singing in the choir on Sundays, and on the 50th anniversary committee in 2008 contributing a review of old photos taken of the parish and parishioners over those years and designing a lapel pin for the occasion.

Donald Heirman headshot
photo courtesy Jerry Ramie
D

on Heirman, age 80, died on October 30, 2020 from complications due to Covid-19. He was born in Mishawaka, Indiana and after graduation from Purdue University and with his active military duty in the Pentagon, he started his professional career with Bell Laboratories in 1963 in New Jersey. He later became the manager of its Global Product Compliance Lab as a distinguished member the technical staff. Upon retirement from Bell Labs, he started his own consulting business—Don HEIRMAN Consultants—specializing in standards education and training in his discipline of Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC), in which he remained active until his death. He was a communicant of St. Leo the Great Catholic Church in Lincroft, NJ for over 50 years, serving as an usher on Saturday night masses, singing in the choir on Sundays, and on the 50th anniversary committee in 2008 contributing a review of old photos taken of the parish and parishioners over those years and designing a lapel pin for the occasion.

Donald Heirman headshot
photo courtesy Jerry Ramie
compliance news
EU Commission Amends List of Harmonized Standards for Certain Radio Equipment
The Commission of the European Union (EU) has moved to update its list of harmonized standards applicable to certain types of radio equipment.

Published in the Official Journal of the European Union, Implementing Decision (EU) 2020/1562 modifies Annexes I, II, and III of Implementing Decision (EU) 2020/167. Those Annexes list 13 additional harmonized standards applicable to: 1) advanced surface movement guidance and control systems; 2) primary surveillance radars; 3) broadcast sound receivers; 4) international mobile telecommunications equipment; and…

Thailand Enacts Ban Against Importation of Electronic Waste
The nation of Thailand has reportedly passed legislation that will prohibit the importation of hazardous electronic waste into that country.

According to an article posted to the website of the Bangkok Post, the ban covers 428 types of electronic waste (e-waste), which is defined by Thailand’s Commerce Ministry as “electric and electronic components and scraps.”

Violations of the newly implemented e-waste ban are punishable by a jail sentence…

DILBERT Comic strip
DILBERT © 2020 Scott Adams. Used By permission of ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION. All rights reserved.
EMC concepts explained
PCB Return-Current Distribution in the Stripline Configurations
By Bogdan Adamczyk
L

ast month’s article, [1], discussed the distribution of a PCB return current in a microstrip configuration. This article discusses the current distribution for the stripline configurations.

Return Current Distribution in a Symmetric Stripline Configuration
Consider a symmetric stripline configuration, shown in Figure 1, where a PCB trace of width w is placed in-between two planes, at the same distance h from each plane; x is the distance from the center of the trace.

The possible plane combinations are shown in Figure 2.

Figure 3 and Figure 4 (on page 14) show the CST Studio simulations of the E and H fields, respectively [2].

Maximize Your RF Immunity Testing Speed and Minimize Costs
Now with the release of IEC-61000-4-3:2020 4th edition, you can perform radiated immunity testing using a multiple signal test approach, with AR’s MultiStar Multi-Tone Tester (MT06002). With mature software, AR’s MultiStar Multi-Tone Tester allows you to perform radiated immunity testing faster based on the number of tones used, lowering your overall test time and cost. AR’s MT06002 offers testing capabilities from 10 kHz – 6 GHz, with up to 1 GHz instantaneous bandwidth to maximize the number of tones and allows you to perform both radiated and conducted immunity testing. It’s faster, more versatile testing from equipment that’s Built to Last.

Visit us at www.arworld.us/multitone or call: 215-723-8181.

AR Bargain logo
AR logo
AR logo
AR logo
rf/microwave instrumentation
Other ar divisions: modular rf sunar rf motion ar europe
Copyright © 2020 AR. The orange stripe on AR products is Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM. Off.
We’re with you all the way
We’re with you all the way
rf/microwave instrumentation
Other ar divisions: modular rf sunar rf motion ar europe
Copyright © 2020 AR. The orange stripe on AR products is Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM. Off.
hot topics in ESD

Factors Involving ESD Protection Cell Design Selections

By Hans Kunz for EOS/ESD Association, Inc.
H

ow is the proper ESD Protection Cell chosen for a particular design application? Perhaps there is a more fundamental question—why is there more than one ESD Protection Cell in the first place? The answer to this second question will help answer the first.

An ESD Protection Cell must meet three basic criteria: it must be robust—able to carry required ESD current without being damaged; it must be effective—able to protect the rest of the Integrated Circuit (IC) during the ESD event, and it must be transparent—it must not interfere with normal IC operation. If the only two constraints were robustness and effectiveness, the ESD Protection Cell design would look like a perfect short— capable of carrying large amounts of current with no voltage build-up. Alternatively, if transparency were the only constraint, the ESD Protection Cell would look like a perfect open—drawing no current away from the rest of the IC circuitry. But both sets of constraints do exist, and the ESD Protection Cell Designer is faced with a requirement for perfectly contradicting attributes. The solution is to divide the operational space into multiple regions: a region where the ESD Protection Cell is robust and effective and a region where the ESD Protection Cell is transparent. How the operational space gets divided can have enormous consequences to the overall IC and ESD performance, and no one ESD Protection Cell can divide the space in a way that is applicable to every unique design application. The best ESD Protection Cell for a particular design application is the one that best divides the operational space between the transparency requirements and the robustness and effectiveness requirements.

banana skins
302
Early colour TV interference from early police radio handset, warns criminals

About the time of the introduction of ‘Panda’ cars in the UK came a new Police hi-tech system known as the Personal Radio. In many Police forces this consisted of a pair of UHF radios, a transmitter and a separate receiver. The receiver was the more interesting of the two from an EMC point of view…

303
Power quality problems will get worse

The widely publicized breakdowns and subsequent blackouts in the public power networks of the Northern United States and several European countries are extreme examples of phenomena that occur on a smaller scale many times every day. Studies have shown that Dips, or “brown-outs,” and Interrupts…

304
Interference problems within a vehicle

When I sampled the Audi A3 Sportback recently with this same choice of transmissions, I could not decide which I preferred. For the GTI I emphatically opt for the conventional manual: even with the ESP (Electronic Stability Program) disabled, in versions fitted with DSG there was excessive interference from background electronic systems…

305
Interference can trigger airbags

Millions of cars have been recalled by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and similar government safety agencies around the world, because of what is known as ‘inadvertent air bag deployment’. This includes cars…

ETS equipment
BEYOND MEASURE.™
ETS Lindgen logo
Visit us, follow us, watch us, and connect with us at:

Facebook logoTwitter logoYoutube logoLinkedin logo

Visit us, follow us, watch us, and connect with us at:

Facebook logoTwitter logoYoutube logoLinkedin logo

Going beyond the standards of EMC compliancy.
The future is here! From driverless vehicles to pizza-delivering drones to ear buds that act as virtual mixing boards for real-world audio, our lives are increasingly dominated by EMC. So, too, is ETS-Lindgren’s work in compliance testing and measurement, transcending the standards of EMC performance – Beyond Measure.

As an international manufacturer of market-leading components and systems that measure, shield, and control electromagnetic and acoustic energy, ETS-Lindgren is the driving force allowing some of the biggest industry names, and latest technological advances, to meet compliance standards. From chambers to test cells, absorbers, positioners, antennas, and software, ETS-Lindgren’s EMC solutions are designed for reliability, diversity, scale, and precision.

More importantly, our ability to create real-world test scenarios, troubleshoot potential failures, and maximize the chance of passing standards within the allotted time and budget helps our customers bring life-changing products to market – faster.

Visit www.ets-lindgren.com/services/education-training to register for one of our live or on-demand webinars.

Feature Article
A Guide to EMC Test Software Validation
Complying with ISO 17025 Edition 2017, Section 7
By Jack McFadden
hands typing on a laptop
S

oftware has assimilated itself into almost every aspect of our lives. It resides within our homes, vehicles, phones, workspaces, and so on. We find it in our televisions, speakers, light switches, and on and on and on. It is everywhere. Resistance to software’s assimilation is futile. It makes our lives easier.

Perhaps not coincidentally, the negative consequences of software-related incidents have drastically increased in the past few years. One of the most recently publicized incidents of software “gone bad” is software’s contribution to the Boeing 737 Max malfunctions, which led to two fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019. The Boeing 737 Max malfunction is a case where the software’s reported performance appears to have contributed directly to aircraft falling out of the sky. These and other incidents have not just gained the public’s attention. They have also served as a catalyst for changes within the industry, such as the use of quality management systems (QMS) to demonstrate that software does what it is designed to do.

Feature Article
System-Level Simulation Solutions for EOS and ESD
By Karthik Srinivasan and Norman Chang for EOS/ESD Association, Inc.
circuit board graphic
A

s electronic systems become more pervasive in today’s world, particularly in mission critical systems, it becomes more imperative that they do not fail within the warranty period. Electrical overstress (EOS) and electrostatic discharge (ESD) damage are two of the major reasons for field failures. Designers of these electronic systems must be aware of the various methods by which EOS and ESD damage can occur and thus apply multiscale, multidomain, and multiphysics simulation solutions to address these issues.

The performance, reliability, and longevity of an electronic system that has direct exposure to system ESD events depend on the system’s immunity from an ESD discharge event. Yet, the components of the system are designed independently with predefined specs and margins in mind. Because the components come from various sources, and often from different companies, they are usually designed by separate teams working in silos and in accordance with predefined margins. As a result, the ESD consequences at the system level can be difficult to identify and mitigate.

What’s more, ESD is not a single physics problem; it’s a combined electrical, thermal, and mechanical problem. Electromagnetic (EM) fields can become second- and third-order effects for other devices within the system, and the mitigation challenge stretches from design into test and measurement. The ability to deliver high performance, integrated systems that meet customer demand while reducing design costs requires a highly accurate and efficient process for simulating across a cohesive chip, package, and system environment.

Feature Article
The Development of Proficiency Testing Programme for Electrical and Mechanical Safety Tests
By S.L. Mak and H.K. Lau
Person checking off a box on a checklist
Editor’s Note: The paper on which this article is based was originally presented at the 2018 IEEE International Symposium on Product Safety Engineering in San Jose, CA. It is reprinted here with the gracious permission of the IEEE. Copyright 2020 IEEE.

T

he ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation is essential to consumer product testing laboratories. According to the requirements of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA), consumer products shall be sent to third-party testing laboratories for testing before they can be put into the market. The certified third-party testing laboratories must already obtain the ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation in the specified test category [1]. The accreditation bodies require the ISO/IEC 17025 accredited laboratories to regularly join the proficiency testing (PT) scheme in appropriate testing areas.

The Hong Kong Accreditation Service (HKAS) provides ISO/IEC 17043 accreditation services to proficiency testing providers in Hong Kong [2]. Current proficiency testing providers are providing three different proficiency test areas: (1) calibration; (2) medical testing; and (3) chemical testing [3]. As the majority of testing and certification companies in Hong Kong are providing consumer product testing services, they can only join the proficiency testing organized by overseas services providers, such as LGC in UK, IQTC in China, ASTM in USA or IEC. In addition, the HKAS also irregularly organizes proficiency testing programmes to the accredited laboratories (e.g., acoustics testing carried out in 2015) [4]. However; they only invited the laboratories that are already accredited by HKAS to join the programme. Therefore, it is impossible to determine the competitive between HKAS accredited laboratories and other overseas laboratories.

laptop
In Compliance Directory logo
From components and devices to chambers and testing services, the In Compliance Directory has you covered.
Find the solutions provider that is right for you
Feature Article

Product Liability Marketing Defects

Liability for Words and Pictures You Use for Marketing
By Kenneth Ross
M

anufacturers of products and providers of services can be held liable for injury, damage, or economic loss suffered by a customer or a third party based on all aspects of its products and services. This includes the product or service itself, all written materials that accompany the product including warnings and instructions, and all oral and written statements made before and after sale. As a result, manufacturers and service providers must provide a reasonably safe product, competent services, and written and oral statements that do not diminish the quality or safety of the product or service, or confuse the customer into doing something that results in injury, damage, or loss.

These types of lawsuits have become more common as products have become safer and fewer accidents occur, and plaintiffs’ lawyers have looked for other claims surrounding the sale of a product. In some cases, these claims can even be brought by an entire class of people who purchased the product.

In Compliance: The Compliance information Resource for Electrical Engineers logo
Thanks for reading our December 2020 issue!