A digital measurement station for the precompliance testing of conducted emissions of power electronic devices

The problem of reducing electromagnetic interferences (EMI) in industrial and commercial systems is today an issue of international interest, especially in the European Free Trade Area. Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) tests are time intensive and require the use of expensive test facilities and measurement equipment. The availability of low-cost in-house testing will allow the designer to analyse EMI problems during the prototype implementation, reducing the time to market. In this paper a low-cost EMC precompliance test station is proposed. It is based on a general purpose VXI digital instrument. It allows the precertification testing of conducted emissions in the frequency ranges DC-9 kHz and 9 kHz-30 MHz to be performed without using an expensive EMI receiver. The data processing is carried out in order to satisfy the CISPR 16 measurement procedures. The comparison between the proposed system and a standard EMI receiver has been performed and the characterization results are given.