On-Site Radiated Emissions Measurements in Semireverberant Environments

Radiated emission tests are generally performed in either free space, reflection-free environments, such as an open area test site or semi- or full-anechoic chambers, or in reverberation chambers. This paper describes measurements in semireflecting environments such as an office, a workshop of a large industrial apparatus or installation. The objective is to develop test methods and associated correction factors and uncertainties for measurements which are performed on-site, near large industrial apparatus which cannot be moved to an EMC laboratory. The measurement technique is based on reverberation chambers and tools such as insertion loss, quality factor, as well as a goodness of fit test were used to perform the test site analysis. The advantages and drawbacks of on-site measurements of large apparatus are discussed. A simplified, but not limited to perfect reverberation chambers, method of finding the measurement uncertainties was used to calculate the errors associated with imperfect reverberation and field uniformity, as well as the influence of noise and equipment nonlinearities. The results are given in form of a guideline, concluding that such measurements are possible.