THE NEW EMC DESIGN ENGINEER CERTIFICATION IS READY
At a meeting held on Jeju Island, Korea, following the APEMC 2011 Symposium, iNARTE concluded negotiations with KEC on the cooperation and administration of this new certification.
KEC, Kansai Electronic Industry Development Center, are based in Kyoto Japan. They are an industry supported organization providing EMC consulting, training and testing services to the electronics industry. KEC has more than 200 member companies, among which are many of Japan’s leading global corporations. In developing this new program, KEC represented the interests of their members and structured an EMC Design Engineer Certification Committee and an Examination Design Working Group from among the engineering experts in their member companies, together with academics from top Japanese universities.
iNARTE also assembled a matching, US based, Certification Committee and Examination Design Working Group with membership from industry and academia.
These groups were able to reach a consensus on the intent and structure of the new EMC Design Engineer Certification program, allowing KEC and iNARTE to sign the agreement.
Why a new EMC certification?
iNARTE’s current EMC Engineer and Technician certification programs began 27 years ago as a result of requests from the US Navy to identify experts who could conduct investigations to resolve EMC/EMI issues in the fleet. Through the 1990s as commercial EMC/EMI standards developed, the iNARTE certification program took on a wider appeal, and today our certification examinations have less than a 20% military content. However, the examination question pool focus still remains largely EMC/EMI test and mitigating engineering.
As a result of industrial globalization, commercial manufacturing and much of the product testing services have moved to lower labor cost regions. Product design and development responsibilities, however, have often remained at company headquarters. In many countries, this migration has resulted in a high demand for skilled electronic design engineers who understand how to apply EMC principles, and a lower demand for the traditional EMC test engineers. It is this demographic that has resulted in the industry request for a dedicated EMC Design Engineer Certification program to be offered.
What are the qualifications?
There are to be three (3) levels of certification:
EMC Design Engineer: Intended for the recent graduate who has the necessary knowledge and understanding to apply EMC principles to electronics design as they start their career. A typical candidate will have included EMC elective courses in an EE degree curriculum, and will be seeking a position in industry, or will have been employed in the industry for less than three years. Applicants who do not have a bachelor’s degree will be accepted if they have four or more years of related work experience. Undergraduates may also apply and will be awarded an Associate level certification pending graduation. Applicants will need to provide a reference, proof of education, pass the examination and write two original examination questions.
Senior EMC Design Engineer: This level can be attained by an individual who has held an EMC Design Engineer certification for three years and passes an upgrade examination. Applications will also be accepted from individuals with an appropriate bachelor’s degree and have four or more years of related work experience. Applicants will need to provide three references, proof of education, pass the Senior level examination and write five original examination questions.
Master EMC Design Engineer: This level is currently reserved for Grandfathering of acknowledged experts in the field. Applications under the Grandfathering scheme will be received until December 31, 2011. Applicants must hold a bachelor’s degree in a related discipline, an advanced degree is preferred. Applicants must have a minimum of five years direct work experience and provide four references, one of which should be from an academic institute or an industry association, one from a manager or customer and two from peers. Grandfather applicants will not be asked to examine, but will need to provide ten (10) new questions in categories that iNARTE will define.
Application forms for all these levels are available from the iNARTE web site, www.narte.org. These forms contain greater detail on the certification requirements and the nature of the examination. All examinations are CLOSED BOOK.
Certifications in this discipline will be awarded for life with no annual renewal requirement or fee. However, Design Engineers will be invited to upgrade to Senior level and eventually to Master level.
When can I get started?
Applications are being received now, so don’t delay. The first examination for the EMC Design Engineer level will be administered at the IEEE EMCS 2011 in Long Beach CA on Friday, August 19. Symposium attendees that have attended the Global University tracks at previous EMCS events should consider taking this examination. The Senior EMC Design Engineer examination will not be available until later in the year. The Master level application with examination will not be available until 2012 following the end of the Grandfather period.
NEW FOR THE MIL-STD COMMUNITY
The Certified MIL STD EMC Specialist application forms are now available for downloading from the iNARTE web site. The requirements for certification are similar to the structure of our traditional EMC certification program, but not quite as demanding. All the details are explained in the Application Forms.
MIL STD practitioners who have not yet attained 6 years of related experience should still take the examination. Upon passing they will be awarded an Associate Certification as a MIL STD EMC Specialist, which will automatically be upgraded when the 6 years have been reached.
The MIL STD examination will be available at any time and from any of iNARTE’s authorized test centers worldwide; simply register at the iNARTE web site. Alternatively, Washington Laboratories Academy will offer both the full iNARTE EMC Engineer or Technician Examinations and the new MIL STD EMC Specialist examination immediately following each of their series of MIL-STD 461F workshops, the dates of which appeal below.
REGISTER FOR CERTIFICATION EXAMS
The following events offer candidates a chance to take the iNARTE certification examinations without added proctoring fees at an Authorized Test Center.
Washington Laboratories Academy – MIL-STD 461F Workshop, September 13-16, 2011, November 14-17, 2011, March 13-16, 2012
IEEE EMCS 2011 – Long Beach, CA. iNARTE workshop on August 15, examinations on August 19
EOS/ESD 2011 – Anaheim, CA. iNARTE examinations on September 16
IEEE PSES 2011 – San Diego, CA. iNARTE examinations on October 13
Candidates can register in advance at the iNARTE web site to examine at any of the above events for any of the programs that we offer. At the event, candidates can register until the day before the exam, but only for the discipline related to the event.
QUESTION OF THE MONTH
Last month we asked:
A logic power supply de-coupling circuit utilizes a 0.01mF decoupling capacitor with an internal inductance of 2nH connected in series with a printed circuit board trace with a inductance of 12nH. At what frequency is the impendence of the de-coupling circuit growing larger with increasing source frequency?
A) 13.5MHz
B) 189.5kHz
C) 10.7MHz
D) 1.35MHz
The correct answer is A) 13.5MHz
The question this month is:
According to MIL-STD-461F, stepped frequency susceptibility scans shall dwell at each tuned frequency for:
A) 500 ms
B) 1 s
C) A period of time not less than that required
for the EUT to respond.
D) The greater of 3 seconds or the EUT response time.
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Brian Lawrence began his career in electro-magnetics at Plessey Research Labs, designing “Stealth” materials for the British armed services. In 1973 he moved to the USA and established a new manufacturing plant for Plessey to provide these materials to the US Navy. In 1980 he joined the “Rayproof” organization to develop an RF Anechoic Test Chamber product line. As a result of acquisitions, Rayproof merged into Lindgren RF Enclosures, and later into ETS-Lindgren. Following a career spanning more than 40 years in the electromagnetic compatibility field, Brian Lawrence retired as Managing Director of ETS-Lindgren UK in 2006. Later that year he assumed the position of Executive Director for the National Association of Radio and Telecommunications Engineers, NARTE. Now renamed iNARTE, the Association has expanded its operations and is today an affiliate of RABQSA under the overall banner of the American Society for Quality, ASQ. |
