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Jan 9, 2025 | 
incompliancemag.com | Kenneth Wyatt
IntroductionThroughout 2024, we discussed measurements and troubleshooting techniques in dealing with radiated emissions. In the next three articles, we’ll turn our attention towards performing our own conducted emissions pre-compliance testing for line-operated products in-house. I’ll discuss DC-powered products in a future article. Pre-compliance testing aims to duplicate the test setup used by your third-party test lab.
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Jan 8, 2025 | 
eeworldonline.com | Kenneth Wyatt
Downloadable and online free and low-cost EE tools help engineers design and analyze circuits. The internet is full of EE tools from equipment manufacturers, semiconductor manufacturers, independent EEs and hobbyists. Some are web-based that you can use with just a browser. Some you need to download and install on your PC while others you install on your smartphone.
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Dec 5, 2024 | 
incompliancemag.com | Kenneth Wyatt
In April 2024, I characterized and performed a design review on an embedded processor. This month, I’d like to do the same thing for the Beaglebone Black, a commonly used embedded processor many designers use as the heart of a product. One of my recent clients wished to use this in an industrial product and based upon my experiences with previous versions of the Beaglebone processor board, I decided to take a look at this latest version. My initial probing did not look promising.
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Nov 7, 2024 | 
incompliancemag.com | Kenneth Wyatt
IntroductionIn the last three months, we have introduced how to manually make the radiated emissions pre-compliance measurements for consumer, automotive, and military products, including all the system gains and losses. Once we complete the calculation for each dominant harmonic, you can directly compare the harmonic amplitude to the appropriate test limit. Unfortunately, this manual method can be time-consuming if there are many harmonics over the limit.
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Oct 29, 2024 | 
interferencetechnology.com | Kenneth Wyatt
Many companies would welcome a full EMC compliance test chamber if it weren’t for budget and real estate considerations. Yet, they would like the opportunity to develop a low-cost troubleshooting solution for assessing radiated emissions and radiated immunity prior to going off for formal compliance testing.
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Oct 17, 2024 | 
interferencetechnology.com | Kenneth Wyatt
This is Part 2 in a series of articles which review the basics of conventional swept versus real-time spectrum analyzers and highlight some of the recent advances and instrument form-factors. Read Part 1, Guide to Real-Time Spectrum Analyzers: Types, here. There are several terms that are important when evaluating real-time spectrum analyzers.
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Oct 8, 2024 | 
interferencetechnology.com | Kenneth Wyatt
INTRODUCTIONWhile unrealistic to discuss all aspects of product design in a single article, I’ll try to describe the most common design issues I find in the hundreds of client products I’ve had a chance to work on. These issues generally include PC board design, cables, shielding, and filtering. More detailed information may be found in the Reference section below.
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Oct 2, 2024 | 
incompliancemag.com | Kenneth Wyatt
IntroductionLast month, we introduced you to radiated emissions pre-compliance testing for commercial, industrial, and medical products. This month, we’ll show you the differences in making the measurements for automotive modules and military products. Next month, we’ll describe some pre-compliance software that will help automate these manual measurements. You’ll want to refer to the general test equipment setups, gain and loss calculations, and test procedures described last month.
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Sep 12, 2024 | 
incompliancemag.com | Kenneth Wyatt
IntroductionLast month, we introduced you to radiated emissions pre-compliance testing and what equipment is required. This month, we’ll show you how to actually make the measurement for commercial, industrial, and medical products, including all the system gains and losses. Once we complete the calculation for each dominant harmonic, you can directly compare it to the appropriate test limit. Next month, we’ll cover some details for automotive modules and military pre-compliance testing.
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Aug 28, 2024 | 
interferencetechnology.com | Kenneth Wyatt
The spectrum analyzer is the one “go-to” tool for every RF, microwave, and EMC/EMI engineer. In recent years, a new acquisition technology has developed, based on FFT capture and digital signal processing – the real-time (RT) spectrum analyzer. This series of articles will review the basics of conventional swept versus real-time spectrum analyzers and highlight some of the recent advances and instrument form-factors.
