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Continuing Your
Professional Education in 2025
Including
Tackling Low-Voltage Signaling in Inverter Design Part 2

Chinaā€™s GB 31241-2022 Standard

EMC Testing of E-Motor Systems

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Including
Tackling Low-Voltage Signaling in Inverter Design Part 2

Chinaā€™s GB 31241-2022 Standard

EMC Testing of E-Motor Systems

January 2025
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January 2025
Volume 17 l Number 1
Contents
compliance news
FCC Clarifies Satellite System Spectrum Sharing Rules
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has recently revised its spectrum-sharing rules to support the further deployment of advanced fixed-satellite services and applications.

In a Report and Order, the Commission clarified certain technical details of the degraded throughput methodology used as part of its compatibility analysis of non-geostationary satellite orbit, fixed satellite service (NGSO FSS) licensees. Specifically, the clarification adopts a 3% time-weighted average throughput degradation as a long-term interference protection criterion and a 0.4% absolute increase in link…

FDA Issues Digital Health and AI Glossary
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has released a helpful glossary of commonly used terms in connection with digital health devices and medical devices that use artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning.

Titled ā€œFDA Digital Health and Artificial Intelligence Glossaryā€”Educational Resource,ā€ the FDAā€™s glossary includes detailed definitions of more than 50 different terms. Of course, it includes several of the more widely-used terms like ā€œArtificial Intelligence,ā€ ā€œDigital Twin,ā€ and the ā€œInternet of Things.ā€ But the glossary also includes several terms probably known only to those immersed in developing and leveraging the relevant technologies, such as…

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expert insights
PRACTICAL ENGINEERING
How to Become a Great Compliance Engineering Professional
By Don MacArthur
C

ompliance engineering is a critical field that ensures products meet safety, quality, and regulatory standards. Whether youā€™re just starting your career or looking to enhance your expertise, here are practical steps to become a great compliance engineering professional.

Master the Basics
Understand safety regulations (including labeling, insulation systems, spacings, dielectric strength, and impulse), electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) (radiated and conducted emissions, and immunity against conducted disturbances, electrostatic discharge, electrical fast transients, surges, damped oscillatory waves, and magnetic fields and so on), environmental factors (such as hot/cold conditions, steady-state humidity, and cyclic humidity), vibration (shock, bump, seismic), packaging (drop testing), and compliance with WEEE, RoHS, and REACH directives.

Familiarize yourself with industry standards such as IEC, UL, CSA, FCC, EN, CISPR, ANSI, and ASTM requirements.

expert insights
Product Insights
The 5-Hour Rule for Career Advancement and Overall Life Satisfaction
By Don MacArthur
S

ome people aimlessly progress through careers and life, gaining little progress or satisfaction. They are nearly the same place at the end of their careers as they were at the beginning. Lack of progress or satisfaction is most likely caused by not setting clear goals and not knowing how to make smart goals a reality. Once formal education ends, many people invest little time honing and developing new skills. Excuses include not having enough time (we are all busy working 40+ hours per week) or not knowing what to study. If this situation sounds familiar, read on. The solution, the 5-Hour Rule, is a simple concept many successful people use. Benjamin Franklin, one of the United Statesā€™ most famous founding fathers, developed the 5-hour rule, investing roughly one hour a day, five days a week, in deliberate learning. As Franklin once said, ā€œAn investment in knowledge pays the best interest.ā€

What is the 5-Hour Rule?
In short, the 5-Hour rule is a very simple rule that means dedicating at least five hours per week (one hour per day, during the weekday) to developing a new skill or learning something new, something that helps you meet (or get closer to meeting) one or more of your smart goals.
In Compliance December 2024 cover
Q&A with the Author
In response to our December 2024 article ā€œObtaining NRTL Approvals,ā€ we received thoughtful questions from a reader about the certification process. Here, author Don MacArthur addresses inquiries from Huzaifa Imran, P.Eng.

Q:

Do critical component lists change over time as described by the NRTL, or can we reference critical component lists from legacy projects during product development?

How does NRTL design a test plan? Do they refer to standard templates (lists of tests) created by NRTL/IEC for both NRTL/C and CB test reports and integrate the relevant tests as part of their testing criteria?

A:

Thank you for your inquiries regarding Critical Component Lists and NRTL Test Plan Design. Here is a comprehensive response:

Critical Component Lists
Critical component lists can indeed change over time. According to the NRTL guidelines, safety-critical components must have current recognition or listing. This means that while you can reference critical component lists from legacy projects, itā€™s essential to ensure that the components still meet current standards and certifications. Any changes in component specifications or standards may require re-evaluation and updating of the critical component list.

NRTL Test Plan Design
NRTLs design test plans by referring to standard templates and lists of tests created by organizations like IEC and ANSI. These templates provide a comprehensive set of tests that cover various safety standards. The NRTL integrates these relevant tests into their testing criteria to ensure that products meet the necessary safety requirements. The process typically involves an initial engineering review, a findings report, a modifications assessment, and an official conformity assessment.

Q:

Do manufacturers have access to standard templates and test procedures created by organizations like IEC and ANSI for preā€‘compliance review?

A:

Yes, manufacturers do have access to standard templates and test procedures created by organizations like the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) for pre-compliance review. These organizations provide various resources, including templates, guidelines, and standards that manufacturers can use to ensure their products meet the necessary requirements before undergoing formal compliance testing.

For example, the IEC offers templates for drafting standards and other publications, which can be used to create documentation that aligns with international standards. Similarly, ANSI provides standards and guidelines for various industries, including electrical power equipment and systems, which manufacturers can refer to during the preā€‘compliance review process.

Feature Article
Continuing Your Professional Education in 2025
Compiled by the In Compliance Magazine Staff
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W

elcome to 2025! Regardless of where you are in your career, your ongoing efforts to refresh or expand your technical knowledge and skills are essential to your continued professional and personal growth and success. So, as the new year begins, weā€™ve once again queried training resources throughout our industry to provide you with an overview of free or affordable solutions to meet your training goals and to help you on your journey to becoming your best self in the new year.

In this article, youā€™ll find sources of compliance-related seminars, workshops, and other types of training, offered live, including both virtual and inā€‘person options, as well as pre-recorded webinars and onā€‘demand training offerings. Weā€™ve also included a list of industry symposia, conferences, and exhibitions to be held in both the U.S. and around the world.

Feature Article
Tackling Low-Voltage Signaling inĀ Inverter Design: Part 2
Managing High-Power Inverter Noise to Protect Low-Voltage Signals
By Christopher James Semanson
hand pulling up a wooden block with a green check amidst other wooden blocks with question marks
I

n Part 1 of this two-part article (see In Compliance Magazine, December 2024), we discussed the challenges involved in designing, building, and debugging a high-power mixed-signal inverter, and examining common application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) that work alongside FETs (field effect transistor) and MCUs, focusing on their roles in interfacing and driving. In Part 2, weā€™ll discuss the importance of choosing the correct PCB stack up during component selection and placement, as well as component and layout mitigation strategies.

Components for Mitigating CoupledĀ Noise
Mitigating the impact of transient signals on inverter systems requires a combination of component-level solutions and effective PCB design practices. Equally important are layout and routing techniques. In the following sections, weā€™ll dive into discussing several component selection strategies a designer can choose early on to protect against these types of failures, and then cover routing and stack-up techniques to minimize noise and interference.
Feature Article
Chinaā€™s GB 31241-2022 Standard
The New Safety Standard for Lithium-Ion Cells and Batteries
By Grace Lin
an organized pile of technology devices including a computer drives, a monitor, a smartphone, digital cameras, a tablet, bluetooth headphones, a small portable speaker, a keyboard, a computer mouse and a smart watch
L

ithium-ion cells and batteries produced in or imported into China are now regulated in accordance with Chinaā€™s Compulsory Certification (CCC) system. The China State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) announced CCC requirement for lithium-ion cells and batteries used in portable electronic equipment through Notice No. 10 issued in 2023.1 Effective August 1, 2024, all regulated lithium-ion cells and batteries must be CCC-certified for compliance with the requirements set forth in GB 31241.

GB 31241, ā€œLithium-ion cells and batteries used in portable electronic equipment ā€“ Safety technical specification,ā€ was originally issued in 2014 and more recently replaced by the 2022 version, GB 31241-2022.2 GB 31241-2022 is not equivalent to any current international standard. However, relevant reference standards include, but are not limited to, IEC 62133-2:2017,3 UN 38.3 (7th Revision),4 and ULĀ 1642:2020.5

Feature Article
EMC Testing of E-Motor Systems
Technical Measures to Fulfill Practical and CISPR 25-Compliant EMC Tests on E-Axles
By Daniel Feyerlein and Alexander Babi
bottom frame of car with the rest above as a hologram
E

lectromagnetic compatibility (EMC) testing of e-drives and e-axles at the component level per CISPR 25 requires both technical measures and carefully developed implementation strategies to ensure that measurements accurately reflect real-world performance. Given the rising demands on performance classes, particularly for high-power electric axles, these tests require a setup that closely resembles the e-axleā€™s actual in-vehicle installation conditions. Achieving this realistic test setup presents unique challenges, as the scale and complexity of the test object directly impact the design and setup of the test bench.

For realistic testing, it is essential to account for the mechanical and spatial demands of larger e-axle systems. This often necessitates a significantly larger test bench than those typically used for conventional automotive components. Such an expanded setup results in increased metal structures within the test environment, specifically in the anechoic chamber. This added metal can influence the electromagnetic field distribution, potentially introducing reflections and resonances that affect measurement accuracy. Thus, ensuring that metallic elements do not interfere with the EMC results is a primary concern in the test bench design.

EMC concepts explained
EMC Education
How Students Benefit from Collaboration Between Academia and Industry
By Bogdan Adamczyk
E

ach year, the January issue of In Compliance Magazine addresses EMC education. It is only fitting that this month ā€œEMC Concepts Explainedā€ [1] is also devoted to the topic of EMC education. Specifically, this column will describe a unique collaboration between academia and industry at Grand Valley State University (GVSU).

The EMC Center, located in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on the GVSU engineering campus, is an intersection between academia and industry that brings decades of EMC & High-Speed industry expertise, tools, and capabilities to the classroom and the student experience. E3 Compliance is an independently funded industrial group and a tenant within the GVSU Innovation & Design Center (IDC). They provide engineering students with industry experience in EMC & High-Speed electronic product development.

This unique collaboration between GVSU and E3 provides opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students to work on cutting-edge electronics technology in multiple industries such as automotive, aerospace, medical, defense, consumer, commercial and industrial.

MASTER COMPLIANCE
CHALLENGES WITH EXPERT GUIDANCE!
In Compliance Blog Series
Expert Insights
A variety of expert perspectives on compliance design and testing, covering topics like EMC, EMI, and product safety.
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Crack the Code to Compliance with Tips from Engineering Pros
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Exclusive guidance from engineers like you.
Practical Engineering with Don MacArthur provides actionable insights on key compliance topics like uncertainty analysis, PCB spacing, and electrical insulation systems to help engineers streamline development and excel in compliance engineering.

In Product Insights, Don MacArthur dives deep into practical EMI mitigation challenges, offering solutions for capacitor behavior, ferrite selection, differential probes, and more to optimize designs and advance engineering careers.

Ken Wyattā€™s EMC Bench Notes helps engineers identify and resolve EMC issues early in the design cycle using in-house pre-compliance testing tools, enhancing troubleshooting skills and reducing costly testing failures.

Patrick Andreā€™s Military and Aerospace EMC shares valuable insights into EMC challenges in high-stakes environments like defense, aerospace, and military systems, offering engineers practical solutions and expertise.

Karen Burnhamā€™s Standards Practice explores immunity standards and advanced testing methods, helping engineers navigate compliance challenges in industries like defense, aerospace, and automotive with techniques like reverberation chamber testing.

Kimball Williamsā€™ Signals and Solutions connects the foundational techniques of amateur radio, such as Morse code, to modern EMC engineering, offering fresh perspectives on troubleshooting, testing, and innovation.

Full Collection of Blogs, Posts and Author Bios:
https://incompliancemag.com/expert-insights
Weekly updates on compliance engineering, including ā€˜Expert Insights,ā€™ are featured first in The In Compliance Weekly Newsletter.
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hot topics in ESD
GAA Technology: Navigating Future ESD Challenges in Mass Production
By Wen-Chieh Chen on behalf of EOS/ESD Association, Inc.
T

o continue Mooreā€™s law, transistor scaling needs to be enabled by geometry innovations. From the 22nm node, bulk FinFET, a multi-gate transistor built on a silicon substrate, has replaced planar FET and become mainstream for mobile SoC applications [1-3]. Beyond the 3nm nodes, bulk gate-all-around (GAA) technology has emerged as a promising transistor architecture, offering superior electrostatic and leakage control [4-8]. Vertically stacked horizontal nanosheets (NS) further enhance driving current per layout footprint [8-11]. CMOS technology scaling will no longer be limited at the transistor level to continue the roadmap further.

New scaling options in considerations of technology co-optimization (DTCO) and system-technology co-optimization (STCO) are being explored to achieve more tailored chip and enhanced system performance, such as a backside power delivery network (BS-PDN). This article examines the impact of double-sided connectivity with BS-PDN on ESD reliability.

Backside Power Delivery Network
BS-PDN was introduced as part of DTCO to enhance functional performance in logic scaling [12]. Metal routing is simplified by separating power and signal pathways, improving frontside (FS) signal integrity, and optimizing backside power delivery [13]. A high-density through silicon via (TSV) or power via is critical for double-sided connectivity between the silicon waferā€™s front and back sides. Thinning the wafer to just a few hundred nanometers is necessary to maintain TSV process quality by achieving a proper aspect ratio [14].
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