EMI Risk Management: A necessity for safe and reliable electronic systems!

Everyone has already been confronted with Electro-Magnetic Interference (EMI), ranging from an annoying buzz in a stereo when receiving a phone call to a computer crashing during a lightning storm. Frustrating, but not life threatening. However, two trends warrant appropriate concern: (ii) high-tech electronics is being used more and more for safety-related functions, (ii) electronic devices are increasingly vulnerable to EMI because of a lower intrinsic immunity and an increasingly severe electromagnetic environment. Combined expertise in Electro-Magnetic Compatibility (EMC) and Functional Safety (FS) will gain huge importance in many sectors like automotive, robotics medical, railways, avionics,... Unfortunately, EMC and FS have evolved separately and share no concepts nor terminology. EMI Risk Management must go well beyond the current state-of-the-art in classical EMC engineering. This paper describes the latest evolutions in the engineering discipline of EMI Risk Management.