The iNARTE Informer – May 2012

In April 2011, we reported that iNARTE had signed an agreement to become affiliated with RABQSA. Now, one year later, I am pleased to announce that effective May 6, 2012, iNARTE will merge into the RABQSA organization. As a result, iNARTE will now become a part of the world’s largest, multi-million dollar, Personal Certification organization, having principal offices in Milwaukee, WI, Sydney, Australia and Seoul, Korea, with eleven other international offices across Asia, Europe, Africa and South America.

SO WHO IS RABQSA?

RABQSA is a non-profit certification agency whose controlling member is the American Society for Quality, (ASQ). ASQ is is a knowledge-based global community of quality control experts, with nearly 85,000 members dedicated to the promotion and advancement of quality tools, principles, and practices. RABQSA offices in the USA are within the ASQ building in Milwaukee.

ASQ had its beginnings in 1946 when quality experts and manufacturers sought ways to sustain the many quality-improvement techniques used during wartime. As the ASQ interests and activities expanded, and in order to maintain separation between these activities, several independent subsidiaries were created under the ASQ umbrella. The ASQ accreditation activities moved to the ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board, ANAB. Much of the personal certification activities moved to the Registrar Accreditation Board, RAB, while ASQ itself retained its global membership and many of the quality related personal certification activities.

RABQSA was created in 2004 through the merger of the personnel certification activities of the US based Registrar Accreditation Board (RAB), by the Australia-based Quality Society of Australasia (QSA).

RABQSA International offers personal certification in more than 30 different disciplines, based on combinations of knowledge, skills, personal attributes and qualifications specific to the scheme and/or scope of certification. RABQSA also certifies training programs based on a series of criteria which allows training providers to offer either certified training courses that have gained industry recognition, and also to certify their own courses.

RABQSA personnel certification programs are accredited to ISO/IEC 17024 by JAS ANZ, Inmetro, and ANSI.

Today, RABQSA has more than 10,000 certified personnel and more than 80 certified training providers. Following the iNARTE/RABQSA merger on May 6, the number of certified personnel in the new organization will swell to almost 15,000.

With few exceptions, the RABQSA personnel certification schemes focus on recognizing the competencies and qualifications of auditors working in a wide variety of industry sectors. iNARTE certifications have been reserved for professional engineers and technicians working in Radio, Telecommunications and other fields involving RF and Electromagnetic disciplines. As a result there is no overlap or competition between RABQSA and iNARTE. In the future, the new organization we will have the industry recognition, support and opportunity to introduce the iNARTE brand certification to the practitioners who work in the sectors currently served by RABQSA’s certified auditors.

Learn more about RABQSA at http://www.rabqsa.com.

The RABQSA 2011Annual Report is available at http://rabqsa.com/docs/rabqsa-annual-report-fy2011.pdf.

IEEE EMCS 2012

The first of the symposia at which iNARTE will be offering examinations in 2012 is the EMCS 2012 in Pittsburgh, PA. Our exam day is Friday, August 10. As usual any and all of the iNARTE certification examinations will be on offer, but for anyone intending to take other than an EMC or EMC Design Engineer examination, we do ask that you register in advance by visiting http://www.narte.org

That way we will be sure to have your examination ready on the day. EMC candidates can register with us any time before or during the symposium. We will be at Booth #300 that week to take care of you and answer your questions.

Don’t forget, this year you can become certified as an EMC Design Engineer, in addition to being certified as either an EMC Engineer or Technician. Our traditional EMC Certification programs for Engineers and Technicians has been offered for more than 20 years, and is based on a general knowledge of EMC fundamentals but with an emphasis on EMC testing and troubleshooting. The new EMC Design Engineer program introduced in 2011, requires a similar knowledge of the fundamentals, but has an emphasis on electronic design and the incorporation of EMC principles when designing for compliance.

Many of you will know as regular readers of, “The iNARTE Informer”, that more than 50% of our EMC certificate holders are in Japan. Last year for the first EMC Design Engineer examinations in Japan, more than 50% of the candidates were already holders of the traditional iNARTE certification. As electronic manufacturing has moved offshore, together with the test labs and test personnel, more and more EMC Engineers are directing their skills to the design and development disciplines. This added personal certification of those special skills is now much in demand by the electronics industries..

Remember, this new EMC Design Engineer certificate is issued for life. Unlike the traditional EMC certificate, which has to be renewed annually as evidence of currency in the technology, this new certificate is intended to test your knowledge in the application of EMC principles to electronic design. As such it is a closed book examination, you can bring just a calculator and a small self made notebook to the exam room, no reference books and no laptops, (remember those days from college?).
The EMC Design Engineer examination is in two Parts. Part 1 consists of 30 questions and all should be attempted. Part 2 is 40 questions, of which 30 should be attempted. Each Part must be completed in 3 hours. Subject matter is generally distributed as follows:

Part 1
Basic Principles
Countermeasures
Design and Design Review
Simulation and Rule Check
Signal Integrity and Power Integrity
Electromagnetics and Shielding

Part 2
Electronic Circuits and Power Electronics
Electrical Circuit Theory
Measurement and Analysis
Specifications and Standards
Mathematics
Terminology 

QUESTION OF THE MONTH

Last month we asked:
An ideal dummy load for use in a 50 Ω system should have:

1. 50 ohm reactance, zero resistance
2. 50 ohm resistance, zero reactance
3. 50 ohm inductive reactance
4. 50 ohm capacitive reactance
5. None of the above

The correct answer is B), 50 ohm resistance, zero reactance

This month’s question is:
For proper operation, what should the pass band impedance of a low-pass filter be as compared to the impedance of the transmission line into which it is inserted?

1. Substantially higher
2. About the same
3. Substantially lower
4. Twice the transmission-line impedance

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.