In a Notice published in the Federal Register in mid-August, the agency announced…

ith the global deployment of 5G networks still underway and many areas of the world still using older and less advanced communications networks, researchers and industry leaders are already looking ahead to 6G and its potential benefits. Following the 10-year development timelines of previous cellular technologies, we could expect 6G trials and deployments as early as 2030. But much work is ahead of us in these coming eight years to develop relevant standards that address the needs that are evident today and those that will reveal themselves in the coming years. To this end, the IEEE Standards Association (IEEE SA) is at the forefront of efforts to define 6G technology.

The high-level vision for 6G is to deepen the connection and integration between the digital, physical, and human worlds. While it’s too early to know what final form 6G will take before it is standardized, we can speculate on the characteristics the next generation network will have, including the technologies that will be included and why they are important.

hen it comes to energy-related products,¹ sustainable product policy in the European Union (EU) is largely implemented through the ecodesign and energy labeling legislative frameworks. Product-specific laws have been adopted under each framework. For example, various household appliances are the subject of individual EU Regulations concerning ecodesign² and energy labeling. In all, about 30 product groups are regulated through some 50 measures.

While the legislative frameworks have been in place for many years, they have also been subject to periodic review and updating. For instance, the 2017 adoption of the EU Energy Labelling Framework Regulation came with the repeal of the 2010 Energy Labelling Framework Directive and the introduction of obligations associated with a product database – later known as the European Product Database for Energy Labelling (EPREL).

he duty to warn and instruct is a significant duty in the United States. Under U.S. product liability law, liability can result if a manufacturer or product seller fails to adequately communicate appropriate safety information to purchasers and users of its products.

Given the considerable number of languages spoken and read in the United States and the significant number of people who do not speak English or are illiterate, developing a method to effectively communicate safety information to readers of product labels and instruction manuals is an important consideration. Adequate safety communications that are not effectively communicated to foreseeable users may arguably be considered defective.

This article will describe the relevant law and the voluntary U.S. technical standards concerning the use of foreign languages in safety information and will provide recommendations to manufacturers about using multilingual labels and instructions, including the use of new technology to better transmit such information.

n Part 1 of this article, I shared with you the origins of my journey to assess the shielding effectiveness (SE) of screened¹ cables and discussed some basic rules for terminating cable shields. In Part 2, I’ll summarize the testing I recently conducted on various approaches to improving the shielding effectiveness of screened cables used in high-frequency applications and the results from that testing.

ou’re the compliance lead for your company’s latest, newest, fanciest widget, just about to be released to production, with anticipated sales in the millions. The product has an extremely high profit margin and customers from all around the world are waiting in line to make a purchase.

So, what are your next steps? The pressure is on high, full-throttle! The beads of sweat are starting to form on your forehead. What do you do to solve this problem in the shortest amount of time possible? Don’t even think board spin. A board spin this late in the game will take too long and is therefore off the table as a solution.

he 2020 edition of IEC 61000‑4‑3 contains several significant technical changes.

1. testing using multiple test signals has been described;
2. additional information on EUT and cable layout has been added;
3. the upper frequency limitation has been removed to take account of new services;
4. the characterization of the field as well as the checking of power amplifier linearity of the immunity chain are specified.

The focus of this article is the checking of the power amplifier linearity as pointed out in item d above.

5. Some modulations if required for the test application, would require a higher power amplifier. Example: When performing an 80% AM modulation test the amplifier needs to have 5.1dBm of margin to accommodate the peak.
6. Antennas, cables, DUTs, and rooms have cumulative VSWR, it is best to allocate for some power margin. Example: working into a 2:1 requires 12% more forward power.
7. Consider the application, is this a single test or will it be used repetitively?
8. Consider your desired RF connection types and locations to be optimal for your application.
9. Consider if automation will be used so the appropriate remote capability is included.

s a compliance engineering professional, you may encounter situations when you must consider how multiple and often conflicting requirements apply to your product and how to deal with them effectively.

6. Verification for IEC 61000-4-3 is a field uniformity test. Typically, a 1.5m x 1.5m vertical plane consisting of 16 points spaced 0.5 m apart is the measured area. At least 12 Points must vary by <6dB.
7. MIL STD and DO-160 chambers can be Semi-Anechoic or Fully Anechoic. Standards require the absorber have a minimum absorption of 6dB from 80MHz to 250MHz and 10dB above 250Mhz.
8. CISPR 25 chambers are fully lined on walls and ceiling, contain a similar table with metal lining on top, and must pass the Long Wire Test or the Reference Site Method test to meet the Standard.
9. Reverb chambers rely upon the reflectivity of the walls and an internal movable paddle to reflect generated signals and increase the value of V/m generated from the transmit antenna.
10. Information needed to design a reverb chamber is the lowest frequency, the test volume, maximum V/m, and standard to be tested to (MIL STD, DO, ISO).

hould the reference (i.e., ground) plane be split into two separate sections and a ferrite bead installed between them to prevent unwanted radio frequency emissions? Let’s examine why this practice is not a good idea and should be avoided at all costs.

Splitting the Reference Plane

The 0V reference plane (sometimes mistakenly called a ground plane) is an essential element in electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) design of a PCB. Its proper design is more important than almost anything else that can be done to the board to achieve EMC compliance. DO NOT split the reference plane unless you know what you are doing (and maybe not even then).

Although it should be kept as one congruent element to achieve EMC compliance, beware that you will encounter EMC design guidelines and application notes for integrated circuits which still describe the old practice of splitting the reference plane between analog and digital sections, and then bridging them with a ferrite bead, as the best thing to do to achieve EMC compliance.

wo questions that often arise in and around engineering research and development cubicles, watercoolers, and office spaces are:

• Which of the two is the tougher design challenge (SI or EMC)?

• How does signal integrity (SI) compare to electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) and vice versa? and
• Which of the two is the tougher design challenge (SI or EMC)?

The following article addresses these two very common questions involving two inter-related and specialized sub-fields within the realm of compliance engineering.

common question in new product development is, “How do I properly ground the heatsink?”

n previous Product Insights articles (References 1 through 7), we’ve primarily addressed filtering and shielding topics separately. While the two are important foundational topics, it’s time to take a deeper look into our roles as product developers toward the goal of achieving the most robust (lowest EMC emissions, high EMC immunity) product design possible at the highest frequency of concern in the system we’re developing.

he calculation of creepage and clearance distances (spacings) is one of the most important activities a product safety/compliance engineer or technician performs throughout the product development process.

Conducting this activity sooner rather than later is key to releasing a product on time and within schedule and budget constraints. Waiting to calculate creepage and clearance distances until the prototype stage, when safety evaluation and testing have begun, is almost always a recipe for disaster. Correcting spacing miscalculations late in the product development cycle will assuredly add unnecessary redesign and retest efforts, increase the risk of delaying production release until the issue is addressed, or even releasing the product without the necessary product safety approvals.

If you work on a technically savvy design team, they will likely turn to you for help in determining the appropriate spacings for the product far in advance of ordering any prototypes. If they do not come to you for help, then it would be wise to take the lead and supply this information even if not requested.

hose who may be looking for a signal integrity (SI)/power integrity (PI) simulation software package should have an idea of what functionality and other characteristics they can expect from such a tool during both pre-layout design and post-layout design.

his article discusses the reflections on a transmission line at a shunt resistive and capacitive discontinuity along the line. The analytical results are verified through the HyperLynx simulations and laboratory measurements.

Note that the transmission line is matched at the source, and the resistive discontinuity and the load resistor values are equal to the characteristic impedance of the line.

When the switch closes at t = 0, a wave originates at z = 0, [1], and travels towards the discontinuity. At the time, t = T this wave arrives at the discontinuity. The transmission line immediately to the right of the discontinuity looks to the circuit on the left of the discontinuity like a shunt resistance equal to the characteristic impedance of the right line [2].

Integrated circuits intended for automotive applications have higher electrostatic discharge (ESD) qualification requirements than those intended for commercial and consumer electronics. This article is in two parts. Part 1 will discuss why electronic components intended for automotive applications might require more stringent requirements and then review the high-level differences between conventional ESD qualification and automotive qualifications. Part 2, to be in next month’s issue of In Compliance, will give the specific additional requirements for human body model (HBM) and charged device model (CDM) for automotive qualification.

(This article had its origin in a series of blog posts on ESD testing available at http://www.srftechnologies.com/ESD-RESOURCES.html.)

Automobiles have always had electrical circuits. Even before electric headlights and electric starters, magnetos provided electrical pulses to power spark plugs. The amount of electrical circuitry increased steadily over the years, and today, the radio was replaced long ago as the most sophisticated piece of electronics in a vehicle. The rapid expansion in the high-tech electronic content in automobiles has attracted increased interest across a much wider section of the electronics industry than in the past. Integrated circuit suppliers wishing to become suppliers to the automotive industry must become familiar with the qualification requirements for automotive electronics.

n AM radio can be useful for finding both radiated emissions and ESD events. The biggest advantage of using a radio in EMC engineering is its cost (A second-hand AM radio on eBay costs about 20 USD or less). Understanding how radio works is essential for engineers to use this low-cost technology to troubleshoot complex EMI issues.

Using an AM Radio to Locate Emission Sources

The client’s product was a large-size installation located at their factory site. To perform an in-situ EMC test on the EUT, they shut down most of the equipment and lighting during the weekend, but the ambient noise at the site was still large enough to cause issues. Even when the EUT was powered off, the ambient environment exhibited a noise level higher than the limit line defined by the standards (in this case, the EUT was being tested against defense standard DEF STAN 59-411). This can be clearly seen in the results while performing a low-frequency radiated emission scan using a rod antenna (see Figure 1).