Tech Briefs
EMC chamber opens

MIRA North America's EMC chamber.

The large increase in vehicle electronics that sense, monitor, and control every thing from speed to ignition systems to collisions, has left many suppliers without immediate access to electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) testing.

"Everybody's at capacity. We're talking backlogs of six weeks or more," says Tim Droege, Account Manager at Motor Industry Research Association/MIRA North America in Plymouth, MI. MIRA North America's just-opened $1 million-plus EMC chamber may soon become as popular as MIRA's semi-anechoic EMC chamber in Warwickshire, UK, which has operated three shifts, seven days a week for more than 10 years. "By the first of the year, we expect MIRA North America's EMC chamber to be in use at least two shifts, five days a week," adds Droege.

According to MIRA Executive Vice President Graham Townsend, "Our NVH problem-solving service at MIRA North America has grown to embrace vehicle dynamics and chassis engineering. With the addition of our new EMC laboratory, we expect to be really busy."

The 9 x 5 x 5 m (30 x 20 x 17 ft) semi-anechoic chamber's capabilities include immunity testing to 1 GHz, electric field generation capability to 200 V/m, and emissions measurements to 1 GHz. Test methods include bulk current injection, radiated immunity, radiated emissions, electrostatic discharge, and transient immunity. "This is the first chamber designed to normalize site attenuation (measurement) requirements using free-space-antenna factors," says John Wood, Managing Director for MIRA in the UK

MIRA North America has applied to be included in the Automotive Electromagnetic Compatibility Laboratory Accreditation Program, and will seek to have the facility recognized as a technical service by the Vehicle Certification Agency in North America for the European certification of all automotive electric and electronic equipment.