A statistical approach to system-level radiated susceptibility testing

The technique chosen by Rover for use as a system level susceptibility test was bulk current injection (BCI). This method has been chosen for a number of reasons. It is convenient, compact and mimics the actual mechanism by which interference is introduced into equipment in the real world (from 10 to 400 MHz), namely conduction through the wiring harness. Additionally, its use has been widespread in the aerospace industries, where whole aircraft testing is impractical. To gain correlation between this BCI system-level bench test and the whole vehicle radiated susceptibility test as measured in a semi-anechoic EMC screened room, it is necessary to modify the resultant susceptibility profile using the individually measured transfer function of the device under test (the induced current per unit applied electric field strength). Since this transfer function is not usually available, a statistical technique has been developed. The implementation of the technique at Rover is described