I see it often:

A software startup pivots… and decides to build hardware

They think it’s just another stack. It’s not

A hardware mistake cannot be fixed in a pull request

Hardware punishes wrong assumptions with:

• Months of delay

• Thousands lost

• And sometimes… a dead company

It’s not that people aren’t smart. They are (a lot)

They just extrapolate, assuming the problems are similar.

In software:

• You iterate fast

• You deploy fixes

• You debug in production

In hardware:

• Iterations take weeks

• Fixes require redesign + manufacturing

• Bugs require days of hunting (often with the product in your hands)

The mismatch is not technical. It’s mindset.

The traps I see most often

• Treating hardware like software

• Ignoring compliance until the end

• Misunderstanding suppliers (they are people!)

• No test strategy (perfect hardware does not need testing, no?)

• Training while extinguishing fires

If you’re a software CTO entering hardware

Start here

• Define what you will build: markets, use case, environment

• Design the system, not just the board: architecture, interfaces, energy flow

• Treat iterations as very expensive (because they are)

• Plan validation from day one (it doesn’t need to be perfect, it just needs to be there)

• Bring expertise earlier than you think

Most hardware failures are not technical. They are planning failures

And planning starts much earlier than most teams think

If you’re building your first device, I can help you identify risks early, before they turn into delays and panic.

Book a design review

Happy building ⚒️
Ignacio

I hope everything is going well on your end

Today, I want to catch up with you and share some updates

1. After three years, I have closed a chapter at Denpaflux, a corporate startup supporting manufacturers on EMC from day 1. From EMC expert to Head of Operations and Co-founder, it has been a fun ride with a lot of learnings. I am ready for the next chapter.

2. Before joining the Startup, I had my own business (clearEMC). It is time to start again. This time from Spain, instead of Belgium or Germany.

3. What is next

   • A new company named Spectral Electronics. I am not sure yet if this will be the commercial name. Enough to start. First, move, then, refine.

   • Where will be my focus on?

     • Making EMC more accessible to everybody

     • Bringing high-impact electronics products to the market

       • High-impact = makes people’s lives better and easier

     • Building a Hardware Ecosystem in Spain

   1. How?

      • Quality > Quantity. Many of today’s problems come from the lack of attention. If we work together, you will get all of my attention

      Thank you for being with me until now. Let’s build the future together.

      If you have a product to bring to the market, hit reply

Happy building! ⚒️

Ignacio

If you have mentioned to somebody EMC or CE marking, I am sure that they have told you “You will need to do a lot of tests”

It sounds easy, right? Everybody knows somebody who has done that already

The fine print?

When you try to go specific, they cannot tell you

Which lab? Which tests? Which standards? Which frequency ranges?

…

Not all laboratories are created equal, so you cannot knock the door of all of them at the same time. There are different laboratories depending on what you need and when.

• Pre-compliance and development

• Compliance laboratories

• Specialised Research laboratories

• On-site laboratories

• Notified Bodies (NB)

Each of them would be the best for you depending on the product you are building and the development stage.

Know the laboratories around you is critical for your project: people, timelines, preferred ways of payment. Everything counts.

Need help choosing your lab?

Hit reply!

Happy building 🛠️

Ignacio

If you are responsible for a product that must pass EMC, you already know this feeling:

Despite regulations, standards, and experts,

EMC often feels unclear and unpredictable

You rely on your team, they are experts, the know And still, when testing approaches, uncertainty and panic rises

This is exactly why EMC so often turns into a gamble. My goal is simple: turn EMC from a gamble into a managed risk

Very early in a project, you are told to produce a technical description of the product

On paper, this sounds easy. In reality, it often fails because everyone interprets it differently

When the technical description is vague or incomplete, only a few people truly understand the product. Everyone else fills the gaps with assumptions

Poor technical documentation → uncontrolled EMC risk

If a question cannot be answered early in the project, it will not magically become clear later

The difference is timing:

• Now: you have time, options, and flexibility

• Later: you have pressure, costs, and deadlines

Early clarity keeps teams calm and decisions rational when EMC pressure increases

What a useful technical description actually contains

A technical description is not just paperwork. It is a shared reference point that aligns design, testing and management. And keeps customers happy.

What to write in a technical description?

At minimum, it should cover:

Product identification

• Product name and model (or models, if more than one)

• Product category (industrial controller, consumer electronics, medical accessory)

• Intended market (industrial, residential, automotive)

Operating environment

• Intended function

• Intended users: skilled professionals or consumers

• Installation environment: cabinet, residential room, vehicle, hospital

• Type of operation: continuous or intermittent

EMC relevant electrical architecture

• Power supply type: AC/DC, DC/DC, adapter, battery

• Nominal input voltage(s) and frequency

• Switching elements

• Clock frequencies: processors, RF if any

• Presence of intentional RF transmitters: yes/no, communication band

Interfaces and external ports

• Power input(s)

• Communication interfaces

• I/O ports (analog, digital, sensor inputs, actuator outputs)

• Cable types and lengths (fixed / variable / customer-supplied)

• Shielded / unshielded connections

Operating modes relevant for EMC

• Normal operation mode

• Worst-case or maximum load mode

• Communication active or inactive modes

Installation aspects relevant for EMC

• Enclosure type: plastic, metal, mixed

• Grounding

• Mounting method

• Cooling method

Variants

• Hardware variants

• Firmware versions

• Optional accessories or modules

Your job as product owner

Your job is not to know every technical detail. Your job is to:

• Ensure the right questions are asked

• Collect the information

• Keep it consistent and up to date

Do this well, and EMC will be less and less a late-stage surprise

How are you dealing with the uncertainties of EMC in your project? Reply to this email, I would love to hear it.

Link correction

In the previous chapter Standards are (not) boring, the link to the The guide for the EMC directive. was wrong. It is now corrected 🙂

Happy building! ⚒️

Ignacio

12 years ago, I had my first lesson about Telecommunications standards

I found it boring. Useless

My brain refused to absorb it.

I am a technical guy, why am I even here?

Today, my perspective has changed.

• Standards are the high-level view of technical implementations

• The ability to read and translate them is a superpower

• Standards have a direct impact on people´s lives

So what is the problem?

There is no Standards 101.

No structured path from total beginner to confident expert

I have looked for it. Surprisingly, the European Union, where I do most of my work, does not provide easy, accessible documentation. You need to click over a bunch of pages until you get some decent information.

The best document I´ve found so far?asd

The guide for the EMC directive. It is good, but it only covers a piece of the picture.

So let´s write our own guide

We start with Standards

One of the first surprises when diving in is the distinction between two terms: directives and standards.

Are they the same?

Not at all

EMC directives are legal requirements established by governments. They define the obligation.

EMC standards are technical specifications that describe how to test and which limits to meet

To find the right standards, you first need to know which directives apply to your product

And just to make things a bit more fun?

There are more than 30 directives in play

More fun in coming chapters!

Happy building! ⚒️

Recently, I have been talking about CE marking a lot.

And I did not like what I saw

There is a lot of confusion around the CE marking

Is that safety, right?

You just need to add a logo to your device

A laboratory gives you the CE certificate and you start selling

There is a lot of unclarity around a process that:

1. Is public and accessible

2. Is expected to be follow by a millions of people

3. Not following it could lead into financial penalties

In the next chapters, we will go over the whole process of getting an electronics product to the EU market

1. Identify the standards

2. Write a technical description

3. Perform a risk assessment

4. Build a technical file

5. Test, test, test, and test

6. Draft the DoC

7. Affix the beautiful CE mark

8. Maintain compliance (what everybody forgets)

See you there!

Happy building

Ignacio

Hi Reader,

EMC is a big topic, but it not the only one that can stop you from selling your device.

​Yes, you read it right. EMC is just ONE of the areas.

There is also safety.

​Unfortunately, there are some interdependencies

Modifications to pass safety tests can impact EMC and viceversa

​An example of it: leakage current and conducted emissions

​The leakage current is the current that can flow from your system to earth. There is a maximum amount of leakage current allowed.

​Why?

​Because when humans touch your system, the current will flow through their bodies

This limit is generally low: 3.5 mA for industrial devices, 0.1mA for medical ones

​What has the current leakage to do with EMC?

​To limit conducted emissions, we use filters. These filters are a combination of inductors and capacitors. Capacitors are connected between lines (X) and between each line and earth (Y).

Capacitors conduct alternate electricity. Then, in AC systems, these Y capacitors will make circulate some current to the earth. That current is limited by safety standards (for safety reasons).

Your responsibility as a designer is to not exceed the safety limits

Hints:

• Consider the network frequency (50Hz/60Hz) and the maximum variation

• Capacitors are two metallic surfaces looking to each other. Check for both intended and unintended capacitors

​

As you might know it, I am building an Open Source Near Field Probe kit​

Since I started, the project has gained some attention. I am excited to see the applications!

The PCBs have arrived! It is exciting to see the designs coming to life.

Once I soldered the connectors I said to myself: let’s test them!

(Silence...)

How am I going to test these?

I have been victim of the same trap that my customers fell into.

It looks like I made the same mistake I continuously prevent them to make

1. Plan your tests

2. Prepare the material

Bring spare parts just in case

In this case, I did not planned any specific tests further than having a generic idea.

I spent the last week gathering EMC documentation to keep training your brain. While useful, it does not help us to move us any further in our quest of mastering Near-Field Probes.

Anyways, we keep the same goal, we adapt the plan.

​

Planning the tests of Near-Field Probes

Goals

What we want to achieve with the tests is:

• Did we build the right thing? Ensure that the assembled probes can detect alternating electric signals (basic functionality

• Did we build the thing right? Characterize the frequency response of each probe (specific functionality?

If the answer to both questions is positive, we will have green light for the next stage!

Did we build the right thing?

We built probes to measure, so we need to be able to measure some moving fields. Then, if we want to detect alternating electric signals, first we will need to generate them. I am doing the measurements in an open space, so there will be ambient noise. Having a controlled environment will help to avoid misreadings.

What we need:

• Generate a known alternating signal (Signal generator or Vector Network Analyzer)

• A way to remove the ambient noise from the measurements

Did we build the thing right?

While having a device that measures something is great, it is not enough. We should ensure that they measure what they are intended to measure with a minimum of quality.

• E-field probes should be mostly sensitive to electric fields

• H-field probes should be mostly sensitive to magnetic fields

• Usable in a real environment like a PCB

• Repeatability: the result should be the same (or similar), no matter the moment

Material

• A Spectrum Analyzer: mine is the Siglent SVA 1015X. It has also a Vector Network Analzyer (VNA).

• Interfaces for coaxial interfaces like Tekbox TBCAS1​

• Coaxial cables

• Basic multimeter

Test plan

• Measure the DC resistance at the coaxial connector to check for short-circuits

• Connect the probes to the Port 1 of a VNA and measure the S11

• Connect the probes to a Spectrum Analyzer and capture some electromagnetic signals

If everything goes well so far, the second part of tests will be something like the following:

• Inject a signal of a known frequency on a terminated cable

• Measure the signal with both types of probes

• Change the frequency and type of the signal

• Characterize the response of the probes

Test results

As you can see, there are some issues with the H-field probe. I currently working on finding it the root-cause to fix it and design a new version. In the meantime, we can focus on the one that works, the E-field probe.

I will detail the test results on the next chapter. Stay tuned!

Tell me! For what would you use the Near-Field probes kit? Hit reply and let me know!

Happy building! ⚒️

Ignacio

I am waiting for my probes to arrive in Germany. Hopefully customs do not decide to take them forever...

While we wait, let’s talk about learning EMC

There is not any official degree and, if that exists at some point, it would not cover all the learnings in the field

So how can you learn it?

How can you become the-person-who-knows-it?

Show up every single day

One step at a time

Read one blog article

Read one application note

Draw one diagram with E/H fields

You do not need to read all the books at once. You need to look after your mental health after all.

Do you get lost and you do not know what to read?

It happened to me

Then I started building a backlog of content to read

Whenever I see something interesting out of my reading time, I store it in my library with the extension “Save to Notion” (I use Notion for everything)

There is a lot of documentation out there and it is very hard to know if they worth a read or not.

Here are my recommendations for this week:

• ​Getting EMC Design Right first time (it is free, even if the website says something different)

• ​How to get the best results using LTspice for EMC simulation​

• ​The Engineers Free Guide to EMI Filters​

What are you reading this week? Just reply to this email!

Happy building! ⚒️

Ignacio

Learning by doing is the best way to do it.

It forces you to understand the concepts behind what you are trying to achieve. You need to go further than if you were just reading it. It is the difference between active learning vs passive learning. I have just finished the book Ultralearning and learning how to learn better and faster got me fascinated.

Focusing on Near-Field Probes

I have launched a new Open Source project of PCB Near-Field Probes and I am learning a ton of new things while doing it

You will get all these learnings! Here is the roadmap:

Requirements: what do we want to get from this set of Near Field Probes?

My plan is to start small, learn and keep iterating. The first requirements are:

• Low cost or, at least, much more affordable than others in the market

• Useful for a generic applications (Not very niche or specific)

• Easy to install and use. Of course, they should be safe

• Easy to manufacture with standard methods

Before jumping into KiCAD, I checked what exists already. I found interesting kits:

1. ​Pocket Near Field Probes (Unit3Compliance): I like the variety and manufacturability. What I like most is the graphic guide on Near-Field probes.

2. ​Ketszim97 - Near Field Probes: simple and visually appealing. The amplifier added directly to the probe shows that the author went an extra mile. We will discuss the need for pre-amplifiers in later chapters.

3. ​OpenFieldProbe: with a good explanation on how they are designed. They even include a plastic case to isolate your hand from dangerous voltages.

The project is now live on Hackaday​

In the next chapter, we will design the probes and define the parameters such as Stackup, routing or vias.

Happy building! ⚒️

Ignacio

Have you ever built something that looked great in theory but failed in real testing?

EMC filters look easy. They are not.

Seeing them all around the Internet does not make them easy.

Today, you will learn how to avoid the common traps when building EMC filters

1️⃣ Designing them only for one kind of noise

There are two types of noise: common-mode noise and differential-mode noise. During the EMC tests, you measure the mix of both. The total amount of noise must be below a limit. Then, filters need to be effective for both types of noise.

2️⃣ Considering only nominal values

Filters are made of components like inductors (L) and capacitors (C). When we start designing them, we use the nominal values to get a rough idea. Once the functionality is validated, we need to consider the real behaviour of components:

• Temperature derating

• Voltage and current derating

• Saturation

• Tolerances

Start with one effect and add the rest, one at a time.

3️⃣ Ignoring the grounding

Filters need a connection to the metallic case, to remove common-mode noise. It is easy to make the connection in a careless manner and ignore the consequences of having too much extra inductance there.

To design effective EMC filters:

​

1️⃣ Design filters for common-mode and differential-mode noise

2️⃣ Consider component non-ideal behaviours

3️⃣ Take care of the grounding

EMC Academy in Oxford

If you like discounts like I do, here is a 30% discount for the EMC and CI in Oxford

​

EMCCI25

​

📍St Anne’s College, Oxford

📅 19^th - 21^st May 2025

​

What will you get?

Learn from the best of the best in the EMC Academy:

• Daniel Beeker, Billion Dollar Mistake: wrong perspective on designing systems

• Rod Macpherson, PCB Design considerations for optimal EMC Considerations

• Dr Marco Klingler, Mastering EMC Through Hands-On Numerical Simulation

• James Pawson, Radiated Emissions Essentials

• Keith Armstrong, PCB and Cable Shield Grounding

• Dr Min Zhang, The art of EMI troubleshooting

​

I am flattered to have the chance to give a talk this year!

From the block diagram to the laboratory: How to prepare for a successful EMC test campaign

Will you attend? Hit reply and let’s have a coffee together!

​

Most of the times, we take for granted the complexity of things we use every day.

One example is Near-Field Probes

There are many out there, from 10 € to 2000 €. They all seem to work in the same way:

1. Connect them to an oscilloscope or a Spectrum Analyzer

2. Place them close to an alternate source of Electromagnetic Energy

3. Measure and extract conclusions

Easy, right?

What if I ask you to build one or two from scratch?

...

Not that easy, right?

That exactly happened to me when I decided to design my own kit

On one hand, we have the outcomes we want to achieve: sensitivity, spatial resolution, frequency range, shielding.

On the other hand, what we can modify in our design: PCB materials, vias (number and arrangement), Stackup, Routing…

How those two categories are linked to each other?

Since I could not find an direct answer, I started drawing:

Not much easier, huh?

Then, I understood one point that was getting me crazy since a while: why there are so many varieties of probes in the market. Each model, price and type existing in shops cover a specific set of the characteristics described above. Near field probes are tools made by engineers, detailed oriented people that are afraid of not covering all the corner cases.

That is why we have so many probes

The question is… How to design something that is enough?

Remember…

That is everything for today. We will continue designing our good enough probes

Happy building! ⚒️

Ignacio

Why?

First, they have the typical challenges of a Startup

• Limited amount of resources: you cannot build a 1M laboratory the first week. The stereotype photo of the first days of a Startup has their founders working long hours in the garage of one of them. You need to build something great with the tools you have around and if you are lucky, with some tools you receive from generous donors.

• Pressure from investors to get high profit fast: investors gave money to you not (only) because they liked you. They want their money back, with interests.

• Constant iterations of the MVP until reaching the Product Market Fit: Startups are inherently uncertain. Building a new product while finding the market is hard. Working with the long cycles of Hardware development makes it hardware than with other products.

If that was not enough, be ready to add complexity specific to Hardware founders:

• A lot of hype around building the next coolest gadget: everybody is expecting that you become the next Tesla or Apple, in the tenth part of the time. The social pressure is high.

• Founders come from Software Startups, carrying biased expectations: investors, advisors, founders and employees often have experience in the Software world. They have built a cool app. Sure, it worked and they deserve the merit, but the rules here are different.

I am a CTO or a founder of Hardware Startup. How can I make it until the end?

You are not alone. There are people out there that have been in the same situation as you are. Talk to them, join the community. Do not try to play the solo founder hero game. It will not end up well.

• Involve partners for specific fields, like EMC or Cibersecurity: fill the knowledge gaps at the early beginning with specialized partners. Plan ahead and involve them at early stages.

• Do not blindly trust previous experience: it is easy to trust the people saying “being there, done that”. The problem? it is never a 100% “been there”. Of course, you need people that can learn from past experiences and adapt, but always check for new patterns.

• Plan, plan, plan: yes, Startups are uncertain, yes, electronics can be uncertain. There is always room for planning and there is always room for second and third options. Consider alternatives and leave room for adjustments.

Are you building a Hardware Startup? How are you dealing with the uncertainty?

Happy building! ⚒️

Ignacio

— “Ignacio, how do I know which requirements apply to my device?”

To be fair, the information out there is often blurry—if not outright contradictory and confusing.

As a manufacturer, you should focus on the Radio Equipment Directive (RED).

Navigating the RED directive

Why is it needed?

The Radio Equipment Directive (2014/53/EU) regulates the placement of radio equipment on the European market. It ensures that electronic devices:

• Do not interfere with other devices,

• Operate safely, and

• Use the radio spectrum efficiently.

In our daily lives, this all seems natural, right? Your mobile phone doesn’t interfere with your washing machine or radio, and the batteries in your TV remote don’t explode when you turn on Netflix.

But think about it…

• We’re putting Bluetooth into toothbrushes.

• The spectrum is busier than ever.

• We have ten times more battery-powered devices than we did as kids. (Back then, the only battery I cared about was the one for my remote-controlled car.)

And we want everything to work smoothly.

Manufacturers, we’ve got work to do.

(Rolling up sleeves)

Today, let’s dig into the RED directive and learn how to place compliant products on the EU market.

Who needs the RED directive?

All manufacturers and importers placing radio devices on the European market.

— What is a radio device?

— Anything with radio communication.

Examples:

• WiFi LTE Router = radio device

• Power supply + WiFi = radio device

• Toothbrush + Bluetooth = radio device

And yes, I included importers. That’s right, I’m talking to you—the person buying gadgets in China and selling them in Europe. You are responsible for ensuring compliance, not the small shop owner thousands of kilometers away.

Duties as a manufacturer

You have all the rights of making a profitable business out of selling products in the market. But, before counting the cash, you need to:

• Ensure that your device is compliant with essential requirements

• Conduct risk assessments and perform tests to meet EMC and spectrum requirements.

• Provide a Declaration of Conformity (DoC) and technical documentation.

• Retain records of conformity assessments and technical files for many years.

• Label products with contact details, model numbers, and CE marks.

A bunch of homework, uh?

No worries, we will walk together. Today it is the introduction.

Become a good manufacturer

A bad manufacturer keeps doing things as if the regulations do not exist or as if the regulations do not evolve (”We have done it always in this way”). Good manufacturers pave their way to compliance at the moment they decide to build a new product.

Be a good manufacturer

How?

Manage the whole project considering the legal requirements

Assign resources from the requirements phase

Keep checklists and prepare for the unexpected

Stay vigilant

What is next?

We will review each of the steps to become a good manufacturer. You will have a clear vision on what to do (and what not to do) when selling your next product.

• Grab the last guide about Near Field Probes: fundamentals, types and uses.

• To know what to write about and how, your feedback is crucial. Leave a comment here​

• If you received this Newsletter from another person. Subscribe here​

Happy weekend

Ignacio

Subscribe now

Happy to have you here

Today, we will prepare everything we need to measure DC conducted emissions using Line Impedance Stabilization Networks (LISN). We will use two of the most affordable models and you will eave this chapter with a shopping list with all the components.

Standards

There are many different standards defining the test set-ups, limits and frequency bands. For industrial products, the applicable standards will be the IEC-61000-6-4. You can get the official documents in the IEC website or, as an alternative, and much cheaper and still legal, in the Estonian Centre for Standardisation website.

The standards define the official test set-up, they describe what you will find in a certification tests. Since we are not building a certificated laboratory (yet?), we will adapt it to have accurate measurements without spending all our savings in a new laboratory set-up.

Line Impedance Stabilization Network (LISN)

LISNs filter the noise from the power source and guarantee a constant impedance within the measurement range. They have a 50 ohm output to measure the emissions coming from an electronic system. In this experiment, we will analyze these two:

• ​Elektor dual DC LISN (150 KHz - 200 MHz)​

• ​Tekbox ТВОН01 (100 KHz - 110 MHz)​

Elektor dual DC LISN

It comes unassembled, so I had fun assembling the different parts within the case. It is very solid and it is clear that the PCB has been carefully designed to manage hundreds of MHz. As an open project, the source files can be downloaded (you will need to create an account)

• ​Dual DC LISN Schematic file​

• ​Dual DC LISN PCB file​

I contacted the manufacturer to get the impedance curves. I will share them in the future once I get them.

The most interesting feature of this LISN and that I look forward to testing, is its ability to measure common-mode noise and differential-mode noise. It can make the troubleshooting fast and smooth the design of EMC filters, avoiding trial and errors and over engineering.

Tekbox TBOH01

The Tekbox LISN comes ready to use and the design files can be downloaded with the following link:

• ​TBOH1 BOM, layout and schematic files​

The LISN impedance curves reflect what the Device Under Test (DUT) will see, a constant impedance within the frequency range. The curves look for the o be sure that the LISN is good, we check the LISN impedance curves.

​

We see that:

• The impedance is constant and within the limits defined by the CISPR standards BUT

• It is not constant, but controlled. It is not enough to assume that it is a 50 flat curve. We will need to add correction factors in our measurements to get accurate measurements.

Both LISNs have an impedance of 5µH//50Ω and are rated for 60 V and 10 A. The different features are the frequency range, channels and the attenuation.

For industrial measurements, we normally focus on the band between 150 KHz (sometimes 9 KHz) up to 30 MHz, so the impossibility of measuring hundreds of MHz is not really important.

A capacitor

It sounds simple, right? It is. We need a capacitor. And why is it not included in the LISN? Because its value depends on the standard. For the CISPR25, this capacitor is 1 uF, while for the DO-160 (avionics applications), this capacitor is 10 uF. The LISN schematic shows it:

A metallic surface

To give return path to the high-frequency fields and bond the LISNs, we need a reference plane. It needs to have a very (very) low impedance. In the official tests, the material is copper, which can be expensive and difficult to find. Our goal with pre-compliance set-ups is to build good-enough conditions to reduce the risk of EMC problems at later stages.

One option, mainly when you have limited space as I do, is the Tekbox TBGP Rolling Up Ground Plane​

Attenuator

An extra piece that is nice to have, even not compulsory is an attenuator or, more specifically, a transient limiter.

Why?

Because we are humans, and we forget things, mainly when we are busy and concentrated looking for a solution to a frustrating problem.

When a voltage that switches fast (the supply voltage) is applied on a capacitor (the one we described above and others present in the LISN), a fast current pulse is generated. This pulse can be high enough to damage the input of your Spectrum Analyzer. And that is something that we want to avoid at any cost, right?

Another reason to have it is to add some extra attenuation, so we do not overload the input ADC.

The Elektor Dual DC LISN has an internal attenuation of 10 dB, but not the Tekbox one.

A good option is the Tekbox TBFL1. There are other options such as the R&S ESH3-Z2 or the Com-Power LIT-930A, but their price is at least twice of the one from Tekbox.

EMI Receiver or Spectrum analyzer

We need a Spectrum Analyzer or an EMI receiver, so we can make Quasi-Peak and Average Measurements. I will use the SVA1015X, with a frequency range of 9 kHz to 1.5 GHz. The only thing I will need on the top of it are some RF adaptors: SMA-TNC for the Elektor dual LISN and BNC-TNC for the Tekbox one. Here there are different combinations possible, depending on the cables you have. Then, I added to the list the adaptors that are useful for me. Check which ones are good for you.

Advancing future steps, there are a few things we should remind:

• We need to consider correction factors of the LISNs, so we compensate the impedance variation.

• If we want to replicate the CISPR measurements style, we will need a specific Software to scan the whole frequency range.

Today was just the shopping list, we will go through them in future chapters.

Shopping list

Putting all together, here is what you need to buy to start measuring conducted emissions. Please, do run and buy everything at one, you might not need every single item of the list.

• ​Standards - 24.40 €​

• ​Elektor Dual DC LISN - 139.95 €​

• ​Tekbox DC LISN - 274 €​

• ​A capacitor - 0.2 €​

• ​Reference plane - 320 €​

• ​Transient limiter - 318 €​

• ​Spectrum Analyzer - 1359 €​

• RF Adaptor - 50 € - TNC/BNC and SMA/TNC​

Read more

I recently added to the website a collection of articles.

• ​Understanding EMC - Conducted EMC​

• ​Design and Simulating EMC filters with LTspice​

• ​A brief review of the tools and parameters of EMC Testing​

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I will wait you on the other side :)

You can find me on Linkedin and on the Website​

Best,

Ignacio