dBi Corporation

The United States expicitly exempts digital circuitry in appliances from regulation under FCC 47 CFR Part 15 (FCC Part 15) in Paragraph 15.103(d), as long as it complies with Sections 15.5 and 15.29.

Canada explicitly exempts digital circuitry in appliances and most portable tools from regulation under ICES-003 in Paragraph 1.2.2.

The European Union (EU), Australia, and New Zealand require these products to meet:

• Radiated Emission limits.
• Conducted Emission limits on alternating- current (AC) plugs and load terminals.
• Harmonics limits on AC plugs.
• Flicker limits on AC plugs.
• Immunity limits on:
  • Enclosures.
  • AC power inputs and outputs.
  • Direct- current (DC) inputs and outputs.
  • Signal and control cables.

Thus, to be sold in the EU, Australia, and New Zealand, (unintentional radiator) household electrical appliances and portable tools products must meet:

• The European Union's (EU's):
  • EN 55014-1:2006 (good until 1 MAY 2012) or EN 55014-1:2006 +A1:2009 for Emissions.
  • EN 61000-3-2:2006 (good until 1 JUL 2012), EN 61000-3-2:2006 +A1:2009 (good until 1 JUL 2012), or EN 61000-3-2:2006 +A1:2009+A2:2009 for Harmonics.
  • EN 61000-3-3:1995 +A1:2001+A2:2005 (good until 1 SEP 2011) or EN 61000-3-3:2008 for Flicker.
  • EN 55014-2:1997 +A1:2001 (good until 1 SEP 2011) or EN 55014-2:1997 +A1:2001+A2:2008 for Immunity.
• Australia and New Zealand's:
  • AS/NZS CISPR 14.1:2003 for Emissions.
  • AS/NZS 61000.3.2:2007 (good until 3 AUG 2011) or AS/NZS 61000.3.2:2007 +A1:2009 for Harmonics.
  • AS/NZS 61000.3.3:2006 for Flicker.
  • AS/NZS CISPR 14.2:2003 for Immunity.

Combining all of these requirements:

Disturbance Power on all cables must be measured from 30-300MHz, to the limits in EN 55014-1 (AS/NZS CISPR 14.1) Table 2.

Conducted Emissions on AC plugs, load terminals, and other terminals must be measured from 148.5kHz-30MHz, to the limits in EN 55014-1 (AS/NZS CISPR 14.1) Table 1.

Personal computers, personal computer monitors, and television sets, with a rated power <=600W, must meet the EN 61000-3-2 (AS/NZS 61000.3.2) Class D (Table 3) Harmonics limits. Lighting equipment must meet the Class C (Table 2) Harmonics limits. Portable tools and non-professional arc-welding equipment must meet the Class B (1.5 times Table 1) Harmonics limits. All other products must meet Class A (Table 1) Harmonics limits. Section 7 exempts certain products from these Harmonics requirements:

• Non-lighting equipment with a rated power <=75W (this may be changed to <=50W sometime in the future).
• Professional equipment with a rated power >1000W.
• Symmetrically-controlled heating elements with a rated power <=200W.
• Incandescent-lamp dimmers with a rated power <=1000W.

Products that are unlikely to produce significant voltage fluctuations, or flicker, do not have to be tested for Flicker (EN 61000.3.2 Section 6,1). Otherwise ITE products must be tested to EN 61000-3-3 (AS/NZS 61000.3.3).

These products must meet EN 61000-4-2 (AS/NZS 61000.4.2) for Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) up to:

• +/-4kV for contact discharges.
• +/-8kV for air discharges.

Indirect discharges to the horizontal coupling plane and vertical coupling plane only have to be tested at +/-4kV. Contact and air discharges to the product must be tested at the limit voltages and at intermediate voltages.

These products must meet EN 61000-4-3 (AS/NZS 61000.4.3) for radiated electromagnetic fields with 80% amplitude modulation at 1kHz, at 3V/m for 80-1000MHz.

These products must meet EN 61000-4-4 (AS/NZS 61000.4.4) for Electrical Fast Transient/Bursts (EFTB) at 5kHz, at

• +/-1kV on AC inputs/ outputs.
• +/-0.5kV on DC input/ output ports.
• +/-0.5kV on signal and control ports with cables longer than 3m.

These products must meet EN 61000-4-5 (AS/NZS 61000.4.5) for Surges, at +/-2kV line-to-earth and +/-1kV line-to-line on AC inputs.

For surge tests, the product must be tested at the limit voltages and at intermediate voltages.

These products must meet EN 61000-4-6 (AS/NZS 61000.4.6) for Conducted Immunity with 80% amplitude modulation at 1kHz, for: 150KHz-230MHz at

• 150KHz-230MHz at 3V on AC input/ output ports.
• 150KHz-230MHz at 1V on DC input/ output ports with cables longer than 3m.
• 150KHz-80MHz at 1V on DC input/ output ports if the product can be connected to AC power while in use.
• 150KHz-230MHz at 1V on signal and control ports with cables longer than 3m.

These products must meet EN 61000-4-11 (AS/NZS 61000.4.11) for Voltage Dips on AC inputs to:

• 0V for 1/2 cycles.
• 40% of nominal AC voltage lasting 0.5 seconds.
• 70% of nominal AC voltage lasting 1 second.

These web pages can point you to regulations and standards applying to your product(s), but please refer to the regulations and standards themselves when deciding how to test your product(s). A regulation's or standard's title gives you strong clues as to what it covers, but its scope (usually section 1) tells you for sure. Carefully check the footnotes in tables, to see if your product falls into an exception that lets you avoid unnecessary tests (or sometimes requires additional special testing). Exceptions that can help you also sometimes hide in the Test Setup section (usually section 7). Also check the Test Report section (usually section 10) for any special documentation required.

Please send critiques, corrections, and/or additions to jrbarnes@iglou.com , or by snailmail to:
John Barnes
dBi Corporation
216 Hillsboro Ave
Lexington, KY 40511-2105

1. Work.
2. Are safe and reliable.
3. Can be manufactured, tested, repaired, and serviced economically.
4. May be sold and used worldwide.
5. Can be easily adapted/enhanced to meet new and changing requirements.

Our President, John R. Barnes, is a Professional Engineer (PE) licensed in the state of Kentucky, a NARTE-Certified Electromagnetic Compatibility Engineer (NCE), a NARTE-Certified Electromagnetic Compatibility Technician (NCT), a NARTE-Certified Electrostatic Discharge Control Engineer (ESDC Eng), a NARTE-Certified Electrostatic Discharge Control Technician (ESDC Tech), a NARTE-Certified Product Safety Engineer (PSE), a Senior Member of the IEEE (SM IEEE), and an Advanced-class amateur radio operator. He has written three books: Electronic System Design: Interference and Noise Control Techniques, which was published in English in 1987 and in Russian in 1990; and Robust Electronic Design Reference Book, Volumes I and II, which came out in 2004. John has also written articles on designing electronics for electrostatic discharge (ESD) immunity for Printed Circuit Design and Conformity magazines.

Robust Electronic Design, Inc. and dBi Corporation may be contacted by:

• E-mail at jrbarnes@iglou.com
• Fax at (859)252-6128.
• Phone at (859)253-1178.
• Snail-mail at 216 Hillsboro Ave, Lexington, KY 40511-2105.