HEADQUARTERS NEWS
Last month we reported that the Board of Directors of both iNARTE and RABQSA had voted in favor of a motion to affiliate. This month we can report that the final Affiliation Agreement has been signed by the Presidents of both organizations at a special meeting of the iNARTE Board of Directors on May 6th.
The combination of these two groups results in the largest global personal certification organization, having 15,000 certificate holders in countries all around the world.
Michael Hayden, iNARTE’s President, and Peter Holtmann, President and CEO of RABQSA, ink the final Affiliation Agreement
The affiliation process is now underway and during the next 12 months administration of the various programs and schemes will be shared between the two teams, so that within a year from now the groups will be able to fully merge. However, the name and identity of iNARTE will be preserved within the new organization, and the status of iNARTE certificate holders will remain unchanged.
Given the increased political and financial strength that this larger organization will have, we plan for a number of new iNARTE Certification programs to be introduced in the near future and for existing programs to be strengthened, adding further value for our certificate holders.
The American Society for Quality, ASQ, is the controlling body for the new organization. Headquartered in Milwaukee, WI, ASQ is a global community of experts and the leading authority on quality with over 85,000 members worldwide. ASQ supports membership services and business operations around the globe; both directly and through its work with ANSI, ANAB and RABQSA, and now also with iNARTE.
This affiliation raises the profile of iNARTE and our certificate holders in the global community. Joining the ASQ, ANSI, ANAB, RABQSA family, introduces iNARTE into the upper echelon of international regulatory organizations and industry associations and will provide new opportunities for significant growth.
GET READY FOR EMC DESIGN ENGINEER CERTIFICATION IN 2011
At a special meeting between iNARTE and representatives of Japanese industry leaders during the Asia Pacific EMC week, APEMC 2011, on Jeju Island, South Korea. The formal agreement on the structure and administration of our EMC Design Engineer Certification was signed. We will now begin to publish the details on our web site, so that all who are interested have enough time to register for examination, or recognition under a Grandfather scheme, before the IEEE EMCS 2011 in Long Beach. After EMCS 2011, the new examination will be available at all the iNARTE authorized test centers.
This certification is intended to demonstrate a candidate’s knowledge of the fundamentals to be observed in designing for EMC compliance. Therefore the examination element of the program will not be the usual open book format. Candidates can bring only their own prepared notebook and a simple scientific calculator to the examination room.
SOMETHING NEW FOR THE MIL STD COMMUNITY
In cooperation the Washington Laboratories Academy, http://www.wll.com/academy, iNARTE has developed a new certification specifically for the Engineers and Technicians involved with testing and designing for compliance to the MIL STDs – Certified MIL STD EMC Specialist. The requirements for certification are similar to the structure of our traditional EMC certification program, but not quite as demanding:
- Complete the application, with registration fee
- Provide three references; one from a supervisor and two from peers.
- Provide evidence of post secondary education in Engineering or a Physical Science.
- Provide work history supporting six (6) years related experience (may include education years).
- Achieve a 70% grade in a four (4) hour, open book examination.
- Write five (5) new questions similar to those in the examination
The examination will consist of 48 questions, but only 40 are to be answered. Half of the 48 questions will be taken from the MIL STDs and the remainder will be from other EMC fundamentals, such as Antennas, Amplifiers, Filters, Shielding and Bonding.
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 appear in this article.
REGISTER FOR CERTIFICATION EXAMS
Don’t forget the following events that offer candidates a chance to take the iNARTE certification examinations without added proctoring fees.
WASHINGTON LABORATORIES ACADEMY – MIL-STD 461F Workshop, June 14th-17th, 2011, September 13th -16th, 2011, November 14th-17th, 2011, March 13th-16th, 2012
IEEE EMCS 2011 – Long Beach, CA
iNARTE workshop on August 15th, examinations on August 19th
EOS/ESD 2011 – Anaheim, CA
iNARTE examinations on September 16th
IEEE PSES 2011 – San Diego, CA
iNARTE examinations on October 13th
Candidates can register in advance at the iNARTE web site to examine at any event 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:
If 10 V is applied across the ends of a 1mm diameter copper wire 100 m long, find the current and electrical field over the length of the wire.
The conductivity of the copper = 5.7×107 Siemens/m.
A) 4.5 A, 0.1 V/m
B) 4.5 mA, 100 V/m
C) 9 A, 0.1 V/m
D) 9 mA, 100 V/m
The correct answer is A) 4.5 A, 0.1 V/m.
The question this month is:
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
