A statistical approach to detect immunity degradations

Statistical signal processing can be successfully used to detect the immunity degradations of equipment by comparing the results of conducted or radiated immunity tests performed on devices complying with reference standards. A typical example is the verification of the effectiveness degradations of shielding enclosures, where modifications due to aging or introduced for functional reasons affect their performance characteristics. The results of simulations performed by irradiating a metal enclosure with an aperture are illustrated; a figure of merit to characterize its shielding effectiveness (SE) level is derived and discussed. The main issue of the paper is the processing algorithm, which can be successfully applied to both simulation and/or experimental results.