RF Conducted Immunity Testing according to IEC 61000-4-6

  • April 3, 2020
  • Posted by: Dominique
  • Category: Conducted Immunity Testing
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Typically, there are many industry and product specific electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) standards to comply with when products are sold globally. So, the process of finding the applicable standards often involves finding the type of product, target market, and typical operating environment, i.e., where and under what environmental conditions will the products be employed. Here we are going to discuss RF Conducted Immunity Testing for commercial products and part 4-6 of standard IEC 61000.

According to IEC 61000-4-6 standard, tests are required for induced disturbances caused by electromagnetic fields coming from intentional radio frequency (RF) transmitters in the frequency range 150 kHz to 80 MHz. The test levels of the unmodulated disturbing signal (Vrms) are shown in the table below.

Conducted Immunity testing is used to simulate the normal voltage and current environment of external power and signal cables of the Equipment Under Test (EUT). In a nutshell, it is a process of simulating the protection against EM fields from any RF source. When cables are bundled together, they can have both capacitive and inductive coupling. This can be simulated by injecting a common mode disturbance into adjacent cabling using a transducer.

HV TECHNOLOGIES, Inc. has been well-known in the EMC industry for years for providing innovative and comprehensive EMC/RF test solutions for test houses, R&D labs, universities and many electronics and electrical manufacturers through their exclusive and highly reputed European partners’ products that are among the most innovative and reliable in the EMC industry.

One such European engineered and manufactured Conducted Immunity test system is Frankonia’s Compact Immunity Tester (CIT). This system takes the guess work out of mixing and matching various hardware components from different vendors and hoping that they can work together as desired to meet the IEC 61000-4-6 test requirements. This is accomplished through careful consideration of test system component specifications and applicable test standard requirements. The addition of Helia, a user-friendly test software, further enhances the end user’s experience to successfully complete the test with minimal efforts.

There are two configurations to the CIT system: CIT-100 and CIT-1000. The picture below shows the physical appearance of both the systems.

The CIT-100 or CIT-1000 system is a complete turnkey test system and meets all the conducted Immunity testing requirements according to IEC 61000-4-6, ISO 11452-4, MIL-STD-461, CS114 and similar standards.  

Both CIT-100 and CIT-1000 are identical in technical specifications and in fulfilling the conducted immunity testing requirements according to aforementioned EMC test standards. The main difference is the built-in computer (PC). CIT-1000 comes with the built-in computer so that the user doesn’t have to use an external PC to control the CIT generator, whereas the CIT-100 is just the generator with no PC. Furthermore, the innovative CIT system is designed to integrate user supplied test instruments like external power amplifier, signal generators, power meters, etc.

The CIT generator can be easily configured to meet higher immunity test levels by configuring the higher power and frequency power amplifiers. The below picture provides a quick overview of different CIT configurations.

As you see in the above picture, CIT can be configured for different test levels using the correct frequency and power amplifiers to meet the IEC/ISO/MIL-STD/CS114 test levels.  

The CIT generators can also be used for the full range of coupling/decoupling network (CDN), Bulk Current Injection (BCI) and EM-Clamp testing. The following calibration and test setups show CIT generators in action for different test setups.

CDN Calibration Set-up acc. to IEC 61000-4-6

 

CDN Test Set-up acc. to IEC 61000-4-6

 

BCI Calibration Set-up acc. to IEC 61000-4-6

 

BCI Test Set-up acc. to IEC 61000-4-6
 
EM-Clamp Calibration Set-up acc. to IEC 61000-4-6

 

The compact and innovative CIT generators have a lot of advantages:

  1. One-box solution
  2. Declutters your test setup
  3. Easy to use and setup for different test configurations (CDN, BCI & EM-Clamp)
  4. Easy & flexible options to integrate existing/additional test equipment
  5. Intuitive test automation software to make the entire testing fast and repeatable.
  6. Compact design and lightweight units provide great flexibility to move the generator between test stations.

Every EMC test is unique, with different test requirements, different test equipment, and different test levels. Most of the time, the test engineers have to go through the hardship of setting up complex test setups to meet the EMC test requirements. Frankonia’s compact and one-box CIT-100 & CIT-1000 generators help to develop simple and compatible test setups by eliminating guess work, required many different test equipment, and possible test setup errors. If you would like to learn more, feel free to contact one of our sales managers at +1 (703) 365-2330 or emcsales@hvtechnologies.com.