Testing

The last decade has seen unprecedented advances in both medical device and information technologies. As the technologies used in these two sectors continue to develop and converge, new markets are created and manufacturers have responded by releasing new products and solutions. One such marketplace is Healthcare IT (HIT), where, for example, solutions are now being implemented enabling physicians to view patient records on a tablet device or remotely from the care location on a smart phone.

GR-1089-CORE has always required the Cross Voltage Test in its Section 4. This test simulates communication wires contacting power wires. Previously, the Cross Voltage Test has been conducted at 600V, but the new Issue 6 has decreased this voltage to 425V. The 425V test uses the same current levels as were required for the 600V test, so this is a decrease in the amount of power that is required to be produced by testers designed to perform the Issue 6 Cross Voltage Test. In this article, we will address the two new tables describing the tests, discuss changes and note the tests that have not changed, and offer some general guidelines for parties who would like to modify existing Cross Voltage Testers to perform the Issue 6 Test Suite at 425V.

Conducted emissions testing may be carried out on an Open Area Test Site (OATS) intended for testing radiated emissions, but it is not necessary to use an OATS and conducted emissions can be tested relatively easily, with high accuracy, in the comfort of your own building.

In the Summer of 2000 I booked some burn time at a small environmental lab in south Dallas. The facility was not exactly state-of-the-art, but the price was right: $300 a burn. It sure beat paying about $4,000 a burn at an NRTL at the time. For 300 bucks, you got the chamber, a methane line burner connected by a hose to a big tank of methane gas, and a technician who would manually operate the whole thing from an adjoining isolated room. A fire extinguisher was always ready “just in case”.

An Industry Council on ESD Target Levels was established in 2006 when a few IC companies decided to understand why during the product qualification process at every corporation, passing the ESD test is a frequent bottleneck for customer acceptance.