A new vehicle test house at Emitech is using an EMC test chamber equipped with complete EMC test system
Emitech provides specialist services as a test house for the automotive industry through the application of testing for product qualification in the sector across a range of technologies including electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) and RFI testing.
To step up to the expected demand, the company has commissioned a new vehicle test centre in the French town of Montigny-le-Bretonneux, which includes a dedicated EMC testing chamber.
According to Emitech, the facility has an EMC neutral and transparent rotating engine test bench installed in an automotive Faraday cage that complies with the CISPR25 standard. The dyno is capable of reaching 21,000 rpm at 510 nm of torque. A filtered power supply is provided in the cage.
Outside, a high-power battery simulator (250kW – 1000V max – 1000A max), a filtered acquisition bay, two 11 kW water/glycol and oil cooling units for the thermal regulation of the engine under test, communication systems (CAN HS / FD / Flexray) between the control panel and the engine under test via an optical converter are proposed and will complete the system.
The PULSAR control and acquisition software, the PULSAR Vibe vibration supervision software and the Emitech EMC test drive system allow the laboratory to provide complete supervision of key engine parameters in correlation with the applied or measured EMC test parameters.
Wide Vehicle Range
The new facility at the test house is dedicated to electromagnetic compatibility tests for a wide range of different types of vehicles, including two and three-wheeler motorcycles, standard passenger cars, trucks and tractors as well as other off-highway equipment such as construction machinery.
There is a heavy load area, which has structural reinforcement that will support up to 40 tonnes allowing the facility to accommodate such heavy construction machinery as well as high-tonnage and high-volume equipment found in the defence, aerospace, railway and nuclear power sectors and, by extension, heavy industry equipment.
The test centre also has the largest and most recent Faraday cage built in France, which is used to perform electromagnetic compatibility tests to ensure that the equipment under test does not generate interference and is not itself disturbed by interference representative of the context in which it will be used.
Instrumentation and Equipment
The chamber is equipped with a complete EMC test system from Rohde & Schwarz including R&S BBA150 , R&S BBA130 and R&S BBL200 broadband amplifiers, R&S ESW44 test receivers, R&S SMB100B RF signal generators and power meters. At the inauguration ceremony, which was held in March this year, Rohde & Schwarz also demonstrated its innovative system for advanced driver assist system (ADAS) testing.
The BBA and BBL amplifiers supplied by Rohde & Schwarz support the EMC tests at Emitech’s test facility and these are housed in several system racks and supply high-power RF signals to all transducers used in the conducted and radiated EMC test setups.
More specifically, two racks for R&S BBL200 amplifiers and a 3 kW power class R&S BBA150 amplifier are installed below the chamber, which work together to create a high field strength from 9 kHz to 1 GHz. The amplifiers use one stripline antenna and two log-periodic antennas. Additionally, a mobile rack including 600 W/300 W power class R&S BBA130 amplifiers with one horn antenna is used inside the chamber for high field strength tests up to 6 GHz.
The R&S BBA amplifiers cover frequency bands up to 6 GHz. These amplifiers can be used for a variety of applications, including the various standards for electr-magnetic measurements. The R&S BBL200 liquid-cooled power amplifiers for high field strengths complement the test setup. These amplifiers are ideal for applications requiring high RF power in a frequency range from 9 kHz to 250 MHz. They are liquid-cooled, solid-state, highly rugged, quiet and efficient. Precise monitoring of all runtime parameters ensures maximum robustness and reliability. The amplifiers are designed for continuous operation and deliver constant power even under mismatch conditions.
According to Rohde & Schwarz, this new installation is a benchmark EMC test solution, which represents a step forward in the ability of the French automotive market to meet its certification requirements.
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