Legal or extended requirements

EMC EMI testing at DELTA

Awareness of EMC

The EMC legal requirements are often clearly incorporated into the manufacturers' awareness, and the conscious user will make the EMC legal requirements the expected minimum requirement.

EMC in agreements

The requirements are set as a natural part of collaboration or purchase agreements. In certain cases, customers or manufacturers may, for various reasons, set more stringent requirements.

Own internal requirements

The internal requirements, as an absolute minimum, consist of the legal requirements; typically, they are significantly more stringent.

The requirements are driven by quality assurance and the demands of the market. As well as EMC, they often include other environmental parameters, such as:

• Temperature
• Moisture
• Vibration

• Seal

Why extended requirements?

The aim of the more stringent requirements is reliable and safe end-products and thus satisfied, loyal customers. The spin-off benefit is often a reduction in service costs.

EMC requirements specification

Most major electronics companies have drawn up an internal EMC requirements specification, which must ensure that the product is designed with a view to the operating environment and the expectations of the end-user.

EMC and ageing

Extended EMC requirements also ensure that the product will meet the requirements irrespective of whether or not the components have specified tolerances and that their properties change in the course of the product's lifetime.

Robustness and Highly Accelerated Life Testing

In recent years, robustness testing such as Highly Accelerated Life Testing (HALT) has become a natural part of the design verification with a view to improving the robustness of the product - as early as in the design phase. 

EMC HALT - High Amplitude Limit Test

DELTA has developed the HALT method so that it also includes EMC HALT. The product is EMC tested at very high levels and in alternative ways in order to locate the weakest part of the design and thus gain an insight into the product's EMC robustness.

Current EMC legal requirements in the EU

The EMC legal requirements for electronic products are constantly being changed and the minimum ones are specified in EMC Directive 2004/108/EC.

EMC requirements from several EU directives

The EMC legal requirements can also originate from several different EU directives for the same device, and they will depend on the operating environment, application and choice of technology.

EMC and safety

In recent years, EMC legal requirements have been introduced in standards which are harmonised under the safety-related EU directives, in recognition of the fact that EMC stresses on products can have affect the safety of people, animals and property.

Contact Test & Consultancy support for more information