The Role of Instrumentation in the Goal of Compatibility "A Look to the Future of Interference Measurement"

The goal of compatibility has often been aptly stated. However, this goal cannot be reached until the compatibility engineer is accepted as a co-worker and consultant to the design engineer. At present, one of the restrictions he faces is the complexity of and time taken for measurements and data reduction. He cannot give the design engineers and project supervisors the information they want in the time frame they need it. Instrumentation which will reduce these time factors and increase his flexibility is seen as a necessary first step toward designed-in compatibility. In this paper the present state of the instrumentation art is surveyed. Qualitative factors such as measurement flexibility and time are considered as well as traditional specifications. From this analysis and consideration of the goals of EMC, the requirements of future EMI instrumentation are projected.