I once read an article (IEEE, 1992), entitled: "Measurement Comparisons of Radiated Test Facilities". The Abstract sez:
". . .A total of 44 sites worldwide were tested involving both Open Area Test Sites (OATS) and Semi Anechoic Chambers (SAC). Preliminary results of the study were presented at the International Zurich EMC Symposium in March of 1991 [1]. This paper presents the final results of the study which took two and a half years to complete. . ." Later on in the article, the authors state: . . ."over 60 percent of the sites had one or more frequencies with differences of over 5 db from the mean." If one was to examine the data closely, perhaps it would indicate that over 5% of the sites had differences much greater than 5 db, for instance. So, in the real world it would obviously be difficult to establish any sort of objective confidence level that could be correlated to a particular emissions level. Max Kelson Evans & Sutherland -----Original Message----- From: WOODS, RICHARD [SMTP:wo...@sensormatic.com] Sent: Monday, October 26, 1998 1:40 PM To: emc-p...@majordomo.ieee.org Subject: RE: Required Margin for EMI? 2 dB was the required margin for initial acceptance to the VDE standard for ITE. Of course, the VDE standards are no longer mandatory since the EMC Directive came into effect. The "new" thinking today is to take measurement uncertainty into consideration when determining a pass/fail criteria. For example, assume that a lab has 95% confidence that their measurement uncertainty is no more than 3 dB. Also assume that the measured margin or your device is 2.5 dB. The measured value indicates that you pass; however, based upon the measurement uncertainty, the lab cannot say that you really do pass. For them to be 95% certain that you do pass, your margin would have to be no less than their measurement uncertainty - 3 dB in this example. ---------- From: s_doug...@ecrm.com [SMTP:s_doug...@ecrm.com] Sent: Monday, October 26, 1998 12:50 PM To: emc-p...@majordomo.ieee.org Subject: Required Margin for EMI? Hello all, When doing EMI scans of ITE, I have always worked with a margin of 2 dB less than the actual limit. No test house I have ever been to will give a "meets the requirements..." without having this margin. Can anyone point out if this is an actual requirement built into any of the standards, i.e. EN 55022 or FCC Part 15, etc. and if so, where is it in writing? I understand about measurement errors, product to product differences and repeatability of testing issues. Just want to know if the 2dB margin is actually written into law. Thanks for your comments. Scott s_doug...@ecrm.com --------- This message is coming from the emc-pstc discussion list. To cancel your subscription, send mail to majord...@ieee.org with the single line: "unsubscribe emc-pstc" (without the quotes). For help, send mail to ed.pr...@cubic.com, j...@gwmail.monarch.com, ri...@sdd.hp.com, or roger.volgst...@compaq.com (the list administrators). --------- This message is coming from the emc-pstc discussion list. To cancel your subscription, send mail to majord...@ieee.org with the single line: "unsubscribe emc-pstc" (without the quotes). For help, send mail to ed.pr...@cubic.com, j...@gwmail.monarch.com, ri...@sdd.hp.com, or roger.volgst...@compaq.com (the list administrators). --------- This message is coming from the emc-pstc discussion list. To cancel your subscription, send mail to majord...@ieee.org with the single line: "unsubscribe emc-pstc" (without the quotes). For help, send mail to ed.pr...@cubic.com, j...@gwmail.monarch.com, ri...@sdd.hp.com, or roger.volgst...@compaq.com (the list administrators).