An Automatic System for the Performance of Susceptibility Tests
Bruno Audone, L. Bolla · 1977
In order to achieve a high degree of repeatibility and to control the accuracy of Electromagnetic Compatibility tests, it is desirable to develop automatic testing techniques. For some con siderable time, emission testing has been carried out using automatic test equipment embodying conventional measuring receivers, XY plotters and a programmer. Susceptibility testing however is still performed using "manual" methods which result in the following disadvantages and limitations: tests are time consuming, frequency and amplitude accuracy may not be satisfactory, operator errors can easily occur and test set-up inaccuracies are seldom ta ken into account and compensated. A new and low cost method of performing susceptibility testing automatically is presented in this paper. The use of a programmable desk top calculator is the basis of the automatic susceptibility method. By driving power amplifiers from programmable sweep generators, the repeatibility and accuracy of the testing will be considerably increased as a result of accurate frequency and amplitude control using control loops (AFC and ALC).Methods of data acquisition and presentation have been studied in order to be able to determine various parameters of the device under test and to graphically present malfunctions in the form of amplitude versus frequency as is conventionally used for emission tests. The advantages of this system is its flexibility. A complex system for performing sophisticated tests may be derived starting from a very basic configuration and building up the system using commercially available equipment.