A Review On Links Between Different EMC Test Environments in Medical Technologies

From electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) perspective, electromagnetic environments of (test) locations may be broadly classified as controlled or uncontrolled environments. Standardized, controlled EMC test environments favour the reproducibility of the test results. However, the actual intended use environments of most electrical equipment (e.g., medical electrical equipment) are uncontrolled in general. Developing the tools to evaluate the correlations between controlled and uncontrolled test environments can support realizing the risk-based EMC approach required by the regulations. Such an approach would facilitate better prediction of actual risks in the (uncontrolled) environments where those equipment are intended to be used. That would help achieve effective risk management. This paper emphasizes the need for studying links between different EMC test environments and provides a review of some of the approaches relating to establishing such links. The scope of this work is bound to EMC in the medical electrical equipment domain with respect to radiated EMI.