February 9, 2014. Agilent Technologies has announced the opening of its 5-m semi-anechoic electromagnetic compatibility chamber facility for electronic test at the company’s Santa Rosa, CA, site. The new facility expands Agilent’s in-house EMC test capacity, increasing the speed of product development and ensuring products’ long-term conformance to emerging standards for electromagnetic emissions and electromagnetic interference.
The EMC chamber enables Agilent product designers to ensure that electronic instruments are tested using today’s most efficient methods. It also provides the flexibility to add capacity and handle new technologies in the future.
“The closest resource for our requirements of this caliber had been more than 100 miles away, so this new chamber provides substantial savings for us in time, travel and expense,” said Guy Séné, president, Electronic Measurement Group, Agilent. “An on-site, state-of-the-art facility enhances our test efficiencies, ensures compliance with international standards, and reinforces our commitment to swiftly delivering products with the highest quality and reliability.”
Equipped with dual antennas and two standards-compliant N9038A MXE EMI receivers, the chamber supports simultaneous measurements of vertical and horizontal polarization up to 18 GHz. For real-time troubleshooting during product development, the display of each MXE can be projected on a wall inside the chamber.
The expanded 3,800-square-foot EMC laboratory features a 1,300-square-foot, 5-m semi-anechoic chamber and several additional EMC test stations. Typical Agilent products that would require EMI testing in Santa Rosa include oscilloscopes, network analyzers, spectrum analyzers, signal sources, and modular products.
The semi-anechoic chamber provides a suitable environment for certain types of EMC testing of electronic products. It also provides a controlled environment so that the only electromagnetic emissions inside the chamber are those originating from products being tested, or are specifically generated to evaluate the products’ immunity to such emissions.