Achieving EMC emissions compliance for an aeronautics power line communications system

Transmitting data over the power distribution network - Power Line Communications (PLC) - provides an interesting solution to reducing the weight and complexity of wiring networks in commercial aircraft. One of the potential roadblocks for the introduction of this technology is achieving EMC emissions compliance. In this article an overview of the EMC conducted and radiated emissions testing for PLC-enabled aeronautics equipment is presented. Anomalies resulting from chamber resonances leading to discrepancies between the conducted emissions tests and the measured radiated emissions are identified and described. Measurements made according to the current version of the civil aeronautical EMC standard, EUROCAE ED-14F (RTCA DO-160F), show that PLC equipment can achieve full EMC emissions compliance.