Impact analysis on test items between IEC 60065, IEC 60950-1 and IEC 62368-1

For many years, product safety evaluations for A/V (Audio/Video) apparatus and ICT (Information/Communication Technology) equipment have been based upon two different IEC standards - IEC 60065 and IEC 60950-1, respectively. However, evolving multimedia technologies have led to the development of products that crossover into the scopes of both Standards. As examples, we can now watch movies on a laptop or surf the Internet on a smart TV. Beginning in 2002, TC 108 has built upon this previous work and has developed a new standard, IEC 62368-1, having a product scope covering both A/V and ICT equipment and built upon Hazard Based Safety Engineering (HBSE) principles¹. The first edition of IEC 62368-1 was published in January, 2010, and there is on-going work to develop a second edition. In order to prepare for the transition from IEC 60065 and IEC 60950-1 to IEC 62368-1, it is important to know potential impact on current design practice. For this purpose, UL (Underwriters Laboratories) has developed comparisons between IEC 60065, IEC 60950-1 and IEC 62368-1 based upon Clauses, test equipment and test items. This paper provides an overview of this comparison and will discuss several case studies on selected topics pertaining to tests.