An Update on Recent Standards Development Activities 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the C63 Committee, which has always been closely associated with the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), has continued to meet by using modern video-conferencing capabilities. The last face-to-face meeting of the full C63 Committee was in November of 2019 in Santa Rosa, California when eight Subcommittees, the C63 Steering Committee, and the C63 Main Committee all met in a series of week-long meetings. Since then, there have been four meetings of the C63 Steering Committee and each of our eight Subcommittees have met approximately every quarter. Each of the Committee’s Working Groups (WG) is responsible for one C63 standard, and the WGs have continued to meet remotely on an as-needed basis to continue work on their respective standards.

This article outlines the activities of the C63 Committee in 2020 and 2021. It describes the EMC standards that have been approved recently as American National Standards and outlines the EMC standards that are actively being worked on as American National Standards.

Details

The November 2019 meeting of the Main Committee was held at the Keysight Technologies campus in Santa Rosa. The week-long meeting was well-attended and the meeting facilities were excellent. Progress was reported by the Chairs of each Subcommittee and each WG on a number of C63 standards.

Anticipating a “normal” year for 2020, the C63 Committee and its Subcommittees (as well as some of its WGs) were scheduled to meet for a week in early May 2020. The rise of the COVID-19 threat in the first quarter of 2020 soon destroyed the 2020 face-to-face meeting plan and the backup plan became having the Subcommittees meet remotely during the second quarter of 2020. This was successfully executed, and progress continued on developing new C63 standards and revising current C63 standards. Of course, it helped that the WGs doing the development work on the standards continued to meet as they often had, that is, remotely via teleconferencing capabilities.

The C63 Steering Committee took over a majority of the Main Committee’s administrative activities by meeting quarterly via teleconferencing and then submitting Motions to members of the Main Committee for any important issues requiring the majority approval of the forty-plus members of the Main Committee. This included the approval of several standards and the annual approval of the Scope, Duties (the standards they are responsible for), and Membership of each Subcommittee.

The scenario of meetings performed by the Subcommittees in the second quarter of 2020 was re-used for the third and fourth quarters of 2020 as well as the first quarter of 2021. It is also planned to use the Subcommittee quarterly-meeting approach for the second and third quarters of 2021.

It is anticipated that the Main Committee, the Steering Committee, and the eight Subcommittees of C63 will meet face-to-face this coming November at the IEEE Operations Center in Piscataway, New Jersey. This plan assumes progress continues on suppressing the COVID-19 virus and the opening of the IEEE Operations Center.

MAIN Committee Members 

The present C63 roster consists of the following Organizational Members:

• American Association of Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA) 
• American Council of Independent Laboratories (ACIL)
• American Radio Relay League (ARRL)
• ANSI-National Accreditation Board (ANAB)
• Apple, Inc.
• Cisco Systems, Inc.
• Dell 
• Element Materials Technology
• Ericsson AB
• ETS-Lindgren
• Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
• Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
• Google, LLC
• Hearing Industries Association (HIA)
• IEEE-EMC Society
• Information Technology Industries Council (ITIC)
• Intertek
• ISED-Canada
• Keysight Technologies
• Keystone Compliance
• Laird Connectivity
• Motorola Solutions
• National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
• Nokia Bell Labs
• PCTEST–Engineering Lab
• Qualcomm Technologies
• Rohde & Schwarz
• Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE)
• TCB Council
• TUV Rheinland of North America
• TUV SUD of America
• UL LLC
• U.S. Department of Defense – Joint Spectrum Center
• U.S. Department of Navy – NAVWAR

Individual members of the Committee include: 

• Steve Berger
• David Case
• Werner Schaefer
• Dave Zimmerman
• Dan Sigouin
• John Lichtig
• Mits Samoto
• Dan Hoolihan 

Main Committee Officers

The officers of the C63-Committee include: 

• Chair–Dan Hoolihan
• Vice-Chair–Dan Sigouin
• Secretaries–Jerry Ramie and Allen Crumm
• Treasurer–Mike Windler

The Secretariat of the C63 Committee is the IEEE Standards Association represented by Jennifer Santulli. The Secretariat handles the editing and publishing of the C63 standards as well as assisting the committee in meeting the ANSI guidelines and regulations on publicly announcing the development of our Committee’s American National Standards. 

Subcommittees

There are eight Subcommittees within the C63 Committee, as follows:

• SC-1—EMC Techniques, Zhong Chen, Chair: Standards include C63.2, C63.4, C63.5, C63.7, C63.23, C63.25.1, C63.25.2, and C63.25.3
• SC-2—E3 Terminology Definitions and Best Practices, Marcus Shellman, Chair: Standards include C63.14 and C63.28
• SC-3—International Standardization, Ross Carlton, Chair: Standards include C63.12
• SC-4—Wireless and ISM Equipment, Bob DeLisi, Chair: Standards include C63.10, C63.26, C63.29, C63.30, and C63.31
• SC-5—Immunity Testing and Measurements, Ed Hare, Chair: Standards include C63.9, C63.15, C63.16, and C63.24
• SC-6—Lab Accreditation/Conformity Assessment, Randy Long, Chair: Standards include C63.34
• SC-7—Spectrum Etiquette, Jason Coder, Chair: Standards include C63.17 and C63.27
• SC-8—Medical Devices EMC Test Methods, Stephen Berger, Chair: Standards include C63.18, C63.19, and C63.33

Working Groups

Each active standard (standards being developed or revised) has a WG associated with it. Each WG has a Chair that schedules meetings of the WG and reports to the respective Subcommittee Chair.

Recent Standards Published by the C63 Committee

C63.10 – American National Standard of Procedures for Compliance Testing of Unlicensed Wireless Devices 

This standard is the second edition of C63.10. It was published on 29 January 2021. The first edition was published in 2013 and this is a technical revision of that standard. The revised standard is 270 pages long. The C63 Committee has petitioned the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to adopt this revised standard and incorporate it into the FCC Rules as it did for the First Edition. The Chairman of the WG that developed the standard was Jason Nixon. The Abstract of C63.10 is

The procedures for testing the compliance of a wide variety of unlicensed wireless transmitters (also called intentional radiators and license-exempt transmitters) including, but not limited to, remote control and security unlicensed wireless devices, frequency hopping and direct sequence spread spectrum devices, anti-pilferage devices, cordless telephones, medical unlicensed wireless devices, Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure (U-NII) devices, intrusion detectors, unlicensed wireless devices operating on frequencies below 30 MHz, automatic vehicle identification systems, and other unlicensed wireless devices authorized by a radio regulatory authority are covered in this standard. Excluded by this standard are test procedures for unlicensed wireless devices already covered in other published standards (e.g., Unlicensed Personal Communication Services (UPCS) devices).

C63.30 – American National Standard for Methods of Measurement of Radio-frequency Emissions from Wireless Power Transfer Equipment 

This is a new standard for the C63 Committee. It was published on 19 March 2021. The Chairman of the WG that handled the standard is Travis Thul. The standard is 268 pages long. The Abstract of C63.30 is:

U.S. consensus standard methods, instrumentation, and facilities for measurement of radio-frequency (RF) emissions and signals emitted from wireless power transfer equipment in the frequency range from 9 kHz to 40 GHz are specified. This standard does not include generic nor product-specific emission limits. Where possible, the specifications herein are harmonized with other national and international standards used for similar purposes.

C63.24 – American National Standard – Recommended Practice for In Situ RF Immunity Evaluation of Electronic Devices and Systems

This is a new standard for the C63 Committee. It was published on 24 March 2021. At the time of publication, David Schaefer was the Acting WG Chair. (Don Heirman, who served as the WG Chair during most of the standard’s development, passed away in October 2020). The standard is 28 pages long. The abstract of C63.24 is:

This document provides recommended test methods for assuring the radio frequency (RF) immunity of electronic devices and systems that might experience susceptibility from general-use transceivers or the RF ambient.

C63.17 – Methods of Measurement of the Electromagnetic and Operational Compatibility of Unlicensed Personal Communication Services (UPCS) Devices

This standard was Reaffirmed in 2020 and it is active through 2022. The WG Chair of the Reaffirmation was Stephen Berger. The Scope of C63.17 is:

Reaffirmation of ANSI C63.17 – 2013. Specific test procedures are established for verifying the compliance of unlicensed personal communications services (UPCS) devices with applicable regulatory requirements regarding radio-frequency (RF) emission levels and spectrum access procedures.

C63.23 – Standard Guide for Electromagnetic Compatibility – Computations and Treatment of Measurement Uncertainty

This Standard Guide was reaffirmed on August 20, 2020. The WG Chair on the Reaffirmation was Bob DeLisi. The Abstract of C63.23 is: 

This application Guide provides methods for determining the uncertainty of measurement for Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) measurement results. This Guide provides information on the application of Type A statistical evaluations. For Type B applications, this guide also provides information on where to obtain specified published information that can lead to an evaluation of uncertainty. The current document provides information on the range 150 kHz to 30 MHz for conducted emissions on main lines and 30 MHz to 18,000 MHz for radiated emission measurements.

C63.19 – American National Standard Methods of Measurement of Compatibility between Wireless Communications Devices and Hearing Aids

The 2019 version of this standard was a revision of ANSI C63.19-2011 which was approved on August 19, 2019. The Chair of the WG that revised the 2011 standard was H. Stephen Berger. The Abstract of C63.19 is:

Uniform Methods of measurement for compatibility between hearing aids and wireless communication devices are set forth in the standard.

In the May 4, 2021 issue of the Federal Register, the FCC published a Final Rule on Standards for Hearing Aid-Compatible Handsets. The summary stated: 

In this document, the FCC incorporates by reference into its wireless hearing aid compatibility rules ANSI C63.19-2019 (2019 ANSI standard) and ANSI/TIA-5050-2018 (Volume Control standard). These standards will be used to evaluate the hearing aid compatibility of wireless handsets.” 

The effective date of the new Rules was June 3, 2021. The Incorporation by Reference of certain standards into the Commission’s wireless hearing aid compatibility rules is approved by the Director of the Federal Register as of June 3, 2021. The Incorporation by reference of ANSI C63.19-2007 and ANSI C63.19-2011 were approved by the Director of the Federal Register as of June 6, 2008 and August 16, 2012, respectively. 

C63.18 – Standard Recommended Practice for an On-Site, Ad hoc Test Method for Estimating Electromagnetic Immunity of Medical Devices to Radiated Radio-Frequency (RF) Emissions from RF Transmitters

This Recommended Practice was Reaffirmed in August of 2019. It is a Reaffirmation of ANSI C63.19 – 2014 (which was a Revision of ANSI C63.18-1997). The Chair of the Working Group that reaffirmed the Recommended Practice was H. Stephen Berger. The Abstract of C63.18 is:

This Recommended Practice is a guide to evaluating the electromagnetic immunity of medical devices to radiated radio-frequency (RF) emissions from common RF transmitters (e. g., two-way radios; walkie-talkies; mobile phones; wireless-enabled tablets, e-readers, laptop computers, and similar devices; radio-frequency identification (RFID) readers; networked mp3 players; two-way pagers; and wireless personal digital assistants (PDAs). This protocol does not provide a comprehensive test or offer any guarantee, but it is a basic evaluation that can help identify medical devices that might be particularly vulnerable to interference from common RF transmitters. The ad hoc test protocol can be used to evaluate existing or newly purchased medical devices or can be implemented for the purpose of pre-purchase evaluation. This recommended practice applies to medical devices used in health-care facilities, but it can also be adapted to medical devices in home healthcare or mobile health-care settings. It does not apply to implantable medical devices (e. g., pacemakers and defibrillators), transport environments, such as ambulances and helicopters, or RF transmitters rated at more than 9 Watts of output power. Testing with transmitters greater than 8 Watts in health-care facilities is not recommended because of possible adverse effects on critical-care medical devices that are in use in nearby areas of the facility. Finally, this recommended practice does not address in-band RF interference where the fundamental frequency of an RF transmitter overlaps with frequencies used by a hospital wireless network or monitoring or used by other medical device wireless links.

Complete List of Standards from the C63 Committee

A complete list of active C63 standards is given in Table 1.

Availability of Standards

ANSI C63 publications are available from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (https://standards/ieee.org) and the American National Standards Institute (https://www.ansi.org).