CISPR 16

In this second installment of a two part article, we continue our review of the recent meeting of IEC-CISPR held in October 2010 in Seattle. In the first part of this article, we have described the current changes affecting the basic standard CISPR 16 and the activities of its experts within CISPR sub-committee (SC) A. We now take a look at the activities of the other CISPR sub-committees responsible for preparing the CISPR product standards. We also describe some of the projects shared by CISPR and IEC TC 77B (High Frequency Phenomena).

October 2010 saw the 74^th IEC General meeting in Seattle, Washington, USA. Within the IEC, its special committee CISPR (Comite International Special des Perturbations Radioelectriques –International Special Committee on Radio Interference) came together and this article reviews some of the key projects discussed at that meeting. The activities of IEC TC 77, a parallel committee to CISPR developing the IEC 61000 series and of equal importance, did not meet in Seattle and hence will not be discussed here except for the JTFs (Joint Task Forces) that exist in common with CISPR Subcommittee A, responsible for the basic standard CISPR 16, which will be the main focus of this first part of a two part article. In the second part of the article (to be published in a subsequent edition of this magazine), we will continue with the CISPR product standards and the Joint Task Forces (JTFs) existing between the different subcommittees as well as between CISPR subcommittees and IEC SC 77 B.

Two of the more important publications in the area of Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) and Measurement Uncertainty (MU) are LAB 34 and CISPR 16-4-2. EMC and Measurement Uncertainty are receiving more attention as other CISPR Product Family Standards begin to adopt MU. LAB 34 is “The Expression of Uncertainty in EMC Testing” and is published by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS). CISPR 16-4-2 is published by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and is titled “Specification for Radio Disturbance and Immunity Measuring Apparatus and Methods – Part 4-2: Uncertainties, Statistics, and Limit Modeling – Uncertainty in EMC Measurements.” This article compares and contrasts the two MU documents.