A Review of EMI Standards, Part 1

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Technical Article
A Review of EMI Standards, Part 1 – Conducted
Emissions
Timothy Hegarty
In general, electrical products must meet some type of electromagnetic interference (EMI) performance metric,
whether established in the product’s design specifications or to comply with regulatory requirements. It’s
important to take into account any functional specifications that stipulate limits for EMI during the design phase
of a project, particularly with respect to printed circuit board (PCB) layout and noise filtering. In part 1 of this
series, I’ll review standards for conducted EMI in automotive, communications and industrial applications. Table
1 provides a list of relevant abbreviations.
Table 1. Common Acronyms
IEC International Electrotechnical Commission
CISPR 25 Comité International Spécial des Perturbations Radioélectriques, an IEC technical committee
EN 55032 A modified derivative of CISPR 32 prepared by CENELC and ratified by the EU
FCC Part 15 Federal Communications Commission; Part 15 subpart B applies to unintentional radiators
UNECE United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
CE Mark Conformité Européene
CENELEC Comité Européene de Normalisation Électrotechnique
EN European Norm
EMI Standards for Automotive

From a regulatory standpoint, UNECE Regulation 10, titled “Uniform provisions concerning the approval
of vehicles with regard to electromagnetic compatibility,” replaced the European Union’s (EU) Automotive
Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) Directive 2004/104/EC in November 2014. UNECE Regulation 10 requires
that manufacturers gain type approval for all vehicles, electronic sub-assemblies, components and separate
technical units. Of course, automotive manufacturing has evolved into a global business, and the requirements
and standards in this specification have broader relevance than the EU.
From an automotive electronic product designer’s perspective, the CISPR 25 product standard specifies
the critical conducted emissions tests that apply at both the overall vehicle level as well as to automotive
components and modules. Measurements are performed using one or two 5µH/50Ω artificial networks,
depending on the grounding configuration. Conducted noise is measured over a frequency range from 150kHz to
108MHz. Because CISPR 25 refers to the “protection of on-board receivers,” the relevant frequency bands are
dispersed across the AM broadcast, FM broadcast and mobile service bands, as shown in Figure 1. The limit
lines in red and blue are the Class 5 peak (PK) and average (AVG) limits. PK limits are generally 20dB higher
than the AVG limits.
SSZT673 – JUNE 2018 A Review of EMI Standards, Part 1 – Conducted Emissions 1

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Figure 1. CISPR 25 Class 5 Conducted Emission Limits with Peak (PK) and Average (AVG) Detectors
Figure 1 also plots the relevant limit lines for Class 5, the most stringent requirement from CISPR 25. Automotive
manufacturers typically leverage this standard and may choose to extend or adjust the limits and frequency
ranges according to their specific in-house requirements. The limits are extremely challenging, particularly the
18dBµV average (and 38dBµV peak) limit in the VHF and FM bands (68MHz to 87MHz and 87MHz to 108MHz,
respectively).
EMI Standards for Communications Equipment

Power-supply products marketed for communications products and information technology equipment (ITE)
within the EU have typically used the well-known CISPR 22 (or its European Standard equivalent, EN 55022)
over many years, with the CE Declaration of Conformity (DoC) for external power supplies referencing this
standard to show conformance with the EU’s EMC Directive 2014/30/EU. CISPR 22/EN 55022 was recently
subsumed into CISPR 32/EN 55032, however. This new standard, targeted at multimedia equipment, becomes
effective as a harmonized emission standard in compliance with the EMC directive. More specifically, any
product previously tested under EN 55022 that is shipped into the EU after March 2, 2017, must now meet the
requirements of EN 55032.
Figure 1 shows the EN 55022/32 Class A and Class B limits for conducted emissions with quasi-peak (QP) and
AVG detectors over the frequency range of 150kHz to 30MHz.
Figure 2. EN 55032 Class A and Class B Conducted Emission Limits
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Similarly, products designed for North American markets have complied with equivalent limits established by the
FCC Part 15 Subpart B for unintentional radiators. Section 15.107 establishes limits for conducted emissions
effectively equivalent to those in CISPR 22.
EMI Standards for Industrial

CISPR 11 is the international product standard for EMI disturbances from industrial, scientific and medical (ISM)
equipment. Groups 1 and 2 are defined with scope for general-purpose and ISM radio-frequency applications,
respectively. Each group is further subdivided in two classes: Class A equipment is for use in all establishments
other than domestic and may be measured on a test site or in situ, whereas Class B covers domestic
establishments and is measured only on a test site.
Meanwhile, IEC 61000-6-3 and IEC 61000-6-4 are “generic” EMC standards that apply to products targeted for
residential/commercial/light-industrial and industrial environments, respectively, particularly if a product-specific
standard is unavailable.
Summary
EMI is an increasingly challenging topic for fast-switching power converters. Commercial products for
automotive, industrial and communications equipment are designed to minimize the amount of EMI produced
during normal operation. Thus, an understanding of the EMI standards pertaining to the application is essential.
The first installment of this blog series reviewed relevant standards for conducted EMI. In part 2, I’ll discuss
standards for radiated EMI.
Additional Resources
• Read the article series, “The engineer’s guide to EMI in DC/DC converters.”
• Take the EMI training webinar, “Understanding EMI and mitigating noise in DC/DC converters.”
• Examine the CISPR 22/25 EMI results provided with these reference designs in the TI Designs library:
– CISPR-22 EMI-optimized reference design featuring LMR23630 synchronous DC/DC buck converter.
– Front end power supply reference design with cold crank operation, transient protection, EMI filter.
– Integrated power front end and multi-phase processor supply automotive reference design.
• Order the EMI-optimized evaluation module for the LM73606-Q1 36V, 6A automotive buck converter.
• Read the Analog Applications Journal article, “Reduce buck-converter EMI and voltage stress by minimizing
inductive parasitics.”
• Download the white paper, “An overview of conducted EMI specifications for power supplies.”
SSZT673 – JUNE 2018 A Review of EMI Standards, Part 1 – Conducted Emissions 3

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EMI Standards for Automotive

SSZT673 – JUNE 2018 A Review of EMI Standards, Part 1 – Conducted Emissions 1

EMI Standards for Communications Equipment

Figure 2. EN 55032 Class A and Class B Conducted Emission Limits

2 A Review of EMI Standards, Part 1 – Conducted Emissions SSZT673 – JUNE 2018

EMI Standards for Industrial

SSZT673 – JUNE 2018 A Review of EMI Standards, Part 1 – Conducted Emissions 3

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