A technical note on modular micro wave/millimeter wave EMS test kit in 1-40 GHz frequency range

Electromagnetic susceptibility (EMS) test set up design for 1-40 GHz is very expensive and complicated exercise to build the test system with number of hardware units such as frequency agile sources, power amplifiers, antennas and so on. Both system designers and EMC test centers largely depend on the big and expensive capital test facilities to carry out these evaluations. A cost effective semi automatic test system using solid state microwave and millimeter wave products are suggested in this paper. The technical details of the test kit built by the author and his team are reported here. Technical limitations of the facility and choice of modules are briefly described. This custom built kit will be adequate for probing EM susceptible subsystems in the 1-40 GHz frequency region at laboratory level for preliminary diagnosis. Suggestions to augment the facility for higher field levels prescribed by military standards are presented.