New weapons for the EMC arsenal

An exclusive interview with a technical leader

Larry Maloney, Contributing Editor -- Test & Measurement World, 7/1/2011 12:00:00 AM

Jim Maginn President/CEO AR RF/Microwave   Instrumentation Souderton, PA In 2009, Jim Maginn was named president of AR RF/Microwave Instrumentation, having previously served as senior VP/CEO since 2006. Maginn joined AR in 1992 as engineering manager, having held defense-related engineering management posts with several leading firms. He was promoted to VP of engineering and manufacturing in 1994 and to senior VP and COO in 1998. Maginn’s career began in 1975 with the Department of Defense, where he was a radar systems engineer on the US Army Firefinder Radar development program and later at the Naval Air Development Center. He holds a BSEE from Villanova University and a master’s in industrial engineering from Texas A&M. Contributing editor Larry Maloney conducted a phone interview with Jim Maginn about the changing requirements for EMC test. Jim Maginn answers more questions about new EMC technologies in the continuation of this interview. To read past “Viewpoint” columns, go to www.tmworld.com/viewpoint.

Q: Over the last decade, how have EMC (electromagnetic compatibility) demands changed for test engineers?
A: More test engineers see the need for higher field strengths and higher frequencies—even up to 60 GHz. Test requirements also have become more stringent as a result of tougher global standards on EMC. Whether it’s a car or an airplane, we see a greater mix of instruments and frequencies that can generate interferences. In higher-frequency testing, we also see more demand for accuracy and linearity in test signals—and less harmonics.

Q: Which applications currently account for the greatest share of your company’s EMC test business?
A: Military test has become more important, taking over from automotive, industrial, scientific, and medical, which once dominated our business. For example, AR recently delivered a 16-kW solid-state power amplifier to BAE Systems in the UK for its facility for EMC testing. This Model 16000A225 amplifier covers frequencies in the range of 10 kHz to 225 MHz and targets applications that require instantaneous bandwidth, high gain, and very high power.

Q: What kinds of applications are driving such high-performance EMC test?
A: Today, you are seeing many more instances of companies doing EMC tests on entire vehicles, such as cars and airplanes, rather than testing components or subsystems on a piecemeal basis. This need for both higher power and higher frequency has led us to redesign our A series and S series of microwave amplifiers to go up to 18 GHz, with the S series going up to over 1250 W in power. These are astronomical increases compared to the capabilities of these devices just a few years ago.

Q: What types of products are typically combined in an EMC test suite?
A: The centerpiece is a set of amplifiers suitable to whatever frequencies that need to be tested. The test engineer can also choose from an array of antennas, couplers, power meters, and field probes, such as our new laser-powered E-field probes, one of which covers the 2-MHz to 40-GHz range, while the other covers the entire 2-MHz to 60-GHz range. Finally, there’s the software needed to control the tests. Increasingly, engineers are asking us to provide turnkey test solutions that incorporate all these test components, plus an anechoic chamber, rather than having to pull together all the elements themselves. This trend runs across all our markets, particularly when engineers need to test an entire end product.

Q: What improvements are you making in software for EMC applications?
A: The whole idea is to make it as easy as possible to perform tests. The newest version of our test software, SW1007, lets users select built-in test procedures and provides formatted reporting capabilities. An updated user interface includes a new tab system that makes selecting the predefined test standard much easier. Users can also create and easily edit parameters to conduct custom tests. Each module in this new software is based on a different type of EMC testing, and an Equipment Manager tool enables users to enter equipment one time, and then access that equipment from any of the software’s modules.

In the past, our software primarily governed tests having to do with radiated conducted susceptibility, but now we can also test for conducted and radiated emissions. We also integrate this software with our new digital-processing-based EMI (electromagnetic interference) receiver for emissions testing. So, we now cover both sides of the street: immunity and emissions. T&MW

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Jim Maginn answers more questions about new EMC technologies in the continuation of this interview.