April 2026

Medical electrical equipment standards are complex—and noncompliance is costly. This article breaks down the top 10 barriers manufacturers face when navigating IEC 60601 and related standards, from EMC testing and isolation diagrams to risk management and software documentation, with practical guidance to streamline certification and avoid delays.

The IEC 60601 family of standards is undergoing its most significant update in decades. This article explains how the 4^th Edition of IEC 60601‑1 restructures safety, performance, terminology, and collateral requirements—and what these changes mean for medical electrical equipment development, conformity assessment, and future regulatory pathways.

Product documentation can protect manufacturers—or expose them to serious liability. This article explains best practices for managing product safety records across the product lifecycle, including defensive writing, document retention, post‑sale reporting, and structured document management programs that demonstrate proactive commitment to safety, regulatory compliance, and product liability risk reduction.

Conducted emissions testing on custom PCBs shows how moving a decoupling capacitor farther from an IC can increase emissions across multiple frequency bands. Using CISPR 25 methods, this study compares capacitor placements and via topologies to reveal how distance and inductance shape PDN behavior.

Small form factor devices often fail traditional field‑induced CDM testing, prompting the need for contact‑first methods. This article compares CC‑TLP, low‑impedance contact CDM, and relay‑based CDM techniques, outlining how each provides more repeatable, lower‑noise stress conditions for bare die and wafer‑level testing.