Design of an automated EMC test facility

The automation in the EMC measurements is always preferred from the conventional manual measurements, due to the repeatability and accuracy of the test results. There is a regular change in the EMI/EMC standards, particularly in military standards with the advancement in the technologies in the test and measurement instrumentation and also the proliferation of sophisticated electronics in the equipment design. There is always a need to refurbish and upgrade the EMC test facilities to meet the new EMC test requirements. An effort has been made to refurbish the existing EMC test facility of MIL-STD 461C/462 to MIL-STD 461E requirements in LRDE. In this paper the design aspects to automate the test instrumentation has been discussed. The automated test facility not only controls the emission and susceptibility test instruments but also monitors the performance of the EUT during susceptibility tests.