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Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) Laboratory

Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) Laboratory

The Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) Laboratory serves for EMC testing and measurements as well as for magnetic cleanliness verification

The laboratory is dedicated to support ESA projects and European Industry by providing measurement and test services in the field of:

Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) – to ensure different electrical subsystems can operate together without interference
Magnetic Cleanliness – to measure and characterize magnetic properties of parts and equipment

Contact

For general enquires regarding this TEC location please refer to the assigned contacts:

Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) Laboratory

Point of contact

Dongsheng. Zhao

Laboratory Manager

For testing requests, access to lab facilities, training and consultancy services, please refer to:

THIRD PARTY ACTIVITIES

TPA Management system

Request

Our EMC engineers are qualified to operate the lab and to provide test services as well as troubleshooting and consultation for projects and R&D activities. The lab also enables hands-on activities for staff, young graduate trainees, and stagiaires. The support delivered from the lab enables projects to ensure EMC aspects are addressed already early in the development and throughout all the design phases, thus avoiding Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) problems on the flight hardware.

Services provided include:

Measurements for highly demanding, non-standard requirements and their verification

Pre-compliance measurements and tests on breadboards or development models

Support to troubleshooting activities

Customised tests for specific project needs

EMC test facility

AC low frequency magnetic measurement facility

Multimagnetometer facility

Mobile Coil facility

Services

Testing

Performance Evaluation
Qualification Tests & Validation Tests
Anomaly Investigations
Characterisation
ESD, DC magnetic susceptibility tests, Perm/Deperm

Measurements

Method development
RF Characterisation
DC and AC Magnetic Characterisation Measurements, EM shielding

Simulation

Electromagnetic Simulation
Circuit simulation
DC and AC Magnetic Simulation

Analysis

Electromagnetic Compatibilty Analysis
DC and AC Magnetic Analysis
Troubleshooting
Interference Analysis

Technical Assessment

Consultancy
Development of Space Standards
EMC Assessments

The EMC Laboratory

The EMC laboratory is comprised of four different facilities: the EMC test facility, the mobile coil facility (MCF), the multimagnetometer facility (MMF)and the AC low frequency magnetic measurement facility.

THE EMC TEST FACILITY

For all kinds of radiated and conducted EMC tests and measurements

The EMC test facility is equipped with state-of-the-art test and measurement instrumentation. The EMC test Facility can be used in the frequency range from DC up to 40 GHz and is equipped with test and measurement instrumentation for conducted, radiated and ESD tests.

It provides services for highly demanding non-standard tests as well as for standard EMC tests on electronic units, equipment and subsystems including consultation, test execution, reporting, and troubleshooting.

The EMC test Facility consists of a shielded anechoic test chamber and a shielded control room, providing controlled environmental conditions. The anechoic test chamber is equipped with pyramid foam absorbers on the walls and the ceiling while the floor is covered with ferrites. In the control room as well as the test chamber, test tables with a copper ground reference plane are available.

Technical parameters

Anechoic chamber size (l x w x h)

8.55 m x 7.50 m x 4.58 m

Control room size (l x w x h)

3.45 m x 6.60 m x 2.93 m

Test table size (l x w)

1.00 m x 2.00 m

Frequency Range

DC – 40 GHz

E-Field Shielding factor

14 kHz – 1 GHz

>120 dB

1 GHz – 10 GHz

120 – 100 dB

10 GHz – 18 GHz

100 – 95 dB

Temperature

(20.0 ± 2.0) °C

Relative Humidity

40 – 55 %

MAGNETIC TEST FACILITIES

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The Mobile Coil Facility – for DC magnetic characterisation and degaussing

The Mobile Coil Facility (MCF) provides services for rotational measurement and multiple dipole modelling of the remanent magnetisation of units under test, in near-real time, using advanced non-linear optimisation algorithms. It can also be used for the measurement of induced magnetic moment as a function of the applied field (up to 100 μT) and for the magnetisation and demagnetisation (perm / deperm) of parts and units, compliant to the ECSS-E-ST-20-07C. The MCF enables missions requiring tight magnetic cleanliness control (Swarm, BepiColombo, Solar Orbiter, JUICE, LISA).

The MCF consists of two pairs of squared Helmholtz coils for the open loop compensation of the ambient magnetic field, one pair of perm/deperm coils connected to a 4-quadrant amplifier, four 3-axis magnetometers (100 μT range), a turntable with motor drive and a computer for command, control, data processing and production of automatic test reports. During rotational measurements, the magnetometers are oversampled synchronously at a typical 10 kHz frequency; the signals are then filtered and decimated to obtain an angular resolution of 1 degree and an effective amplitude resolution in the order of 100 pT as inputs to the optimisation algorithms.

The Mobile Coil Facility

Technical parameters

Measurement type

360 deg rotational measurement

Measurement range

+/- 100 µT

Measurement resolution

12 pT

Useable test volume (1µT inhomogeneity)

70 cm x 70 cm x 70 cm

Max test object weight

20 kg

Turntable diameter

50 cm

Demagnetisation field (3 Hz)

Max. 5 mT

The AC Magnetic Facility – for low frequency AC magnetic field measurements

The AC Magnetic Facility allows the determination of low frequency magnetic emissions in time and frequency domain. The powered unit under test is placed fixed in a volume defined by 8 or 16 magnetometers and the facility software can discriminate between magnetic sources inside or outside this volume using spherical harmonic expansion models and Gaussian separation into inner and outer sources. This allows rejecting ambient noise substantially and enables verification of demanding requirements for science missions, such as JUICE. The frequency spectrum is derived from the time series, thus the lower limit on the frequency range is mainly driven by the acquisition duration required to capture the relevant operational mode changes of the unit under test.

The AC Magnetic Facility provides equipment to measure very low quasi-static magnetic fields in the frequency range 0 - 50 kHz and to predict the amplitude spectrum at the point of interest, e.g.the location of the sensitive instrument on the spacecraft. The AC Magnetic Facility can either be used with a set of 16 triaxial fluxgate sensors (DC - 2 kHz) or with a set of 8 triaxial search coil magnetometers (160 Hz - 50 kHz). The position of the magnetometers and the unit under test is accurately determined with a laser system.

The Multi-Magnetometer Facility – for DC magnetic characterisation

The Multi-Magnetometer Facility (MMF) is used to measure the magnetic moment with multiple magnetometers from different angles in a 'snapshot' without the need for rotation. This allows to reduce the influence of fluctuations of the Earth's magnetic field while reducing measurement time. Moreover, this allows units under test to be heavier (up to 50 kg). With the MMF software, multiple dipole models can be generated from the measured data that are then used for the prediction of magnetic moments at the location of interest.

The Multi-Magnetometer facility (MMF) is equipped with in total twelve 3-axis fluxgate magnetometers (+/- 100 uT range) connected to a data acquisition system that allows to measure the DC magnetic field generated by the unit under test from different angles and elevations in a 'snapshot' without the need for rotation. The mechanical support system, consisting of a mechanically stable common panel structure to provide accurate positioning and alignment for the magnetometers and unit under test.