EMC compliance using appropriate design techniques

The most usual approach to compliance with the EMC Directive is via the harmonized standards route, which involves choosing and then “applying” one or more harmonized standards from the raft of available references that have been published in the Official Journal of the EC. Those unfamiliar with EMC but used to safety requirements have quite naturally formed the view that standards specify “a way of doing things”, that is to say, they are applied at the design stage of a new product as a set of rules that determine the design choices. If you follow these rules, then you have complied with the standard. EMC standards are not like this. They are standards for testing, not for design. You cannot “design to comply with” an EMC standard, you can only demonstrate that you have complied by performing the specified test. This paper discusses some of the implications of this characteristic for product designers, and recommends design approaches which will go some way towards helping to meet the problems it causes