Narda’s New ER Series – Fast, Full Compliant EMC Test Receivers at Certification Level

With its newly developed ER series, Narda Safety Test Solutions S.r.l. presents genuine, fully "CISPR 16-1-1" compliant EMI receivers for all applications and situations regarding reliable EMC tests at the highest laboratory level. Thanks to their gapless FFT architecture, the PMM ER8000 and ER9000 series reliably and extremely quickly measure conducted and radiated emissions from electrical and electronic equipment. Full conformity is at no time affected. With a view to fast, reliable results in electromagnetic compatibility tests, the extremely user-friendly receivers cover frequencies from 10 Hz up to 3 GHz. And they do it without any compromise in terms of performance and quality. Furthermore, Narda has succeeded in bringing the new state-of-the-art digital receivers to market at a reasonable price. Therefore, they are the ideal technical and economical solution for independent certification laboratories as well as for manufacturers of electronic products for all their EMC testing tasks.

Initial situation
EMI receivers usually employeed in accredited certification laboratories are extremely expensive compared to conventional oscilloscopes, signal analysers and receivers due to their special, very complex technology and a comparatively small market. And there is a reason for that. EMC certifications are technically very demanding. For instance, it is often necessary to take into account the interaction of different main, power supply and communication boards. The complex emission behaviour of all components of electrical and electronic products must be recorded and analysed in full conformity with standards in all combinations and at all angles. Normally, it is not clear from the outset in which frequency range emission problems may occur. It is not clear where interference lies above the permitted limit.  This means that the energy can be very high and distributed over the entire spectrum.

Real EMI test receivers, their hardware as well as the complex software and firmware, must reflect all this – full compliance with standards, speed and flexibility. They must always respond fully compliant with standards and precisely, even if the device under test (DUT) is examined on the turntable partially open or disassembled in a preliminary set-up. In this situation, EMI receivers cannot function correctly without a high-quality preselector, which is very expensive, and without high-performance filters. Especially if they operate over a wide frequency band, as is so often the case, incorrect measurement results can happen. This is due to a potential overload of the front-end mixer or the ADC (analogue-to-digital converter). If the signal has high energy levels in combination with a very wide spectral band, as in the case of a pulse, then if non-compliant equipment is used, completely inaccurate readings are guaranteed to result.

The solution – PMM ER8000 and PMM ER9000
In this framework, Narda now offers its new generation of premium EMI test receivers in different levels, the PMM ER8000 and PMM ER9000 series. All of them are fully "CISPR 16-1-1"-compliant digital EMI receivers. Gapless FFT-based over a bandwidth of 15 MHz. Their FFT architecture is used to observe a significantly wider frequency band in the same time period during EMC tests. This saves time and ultimately money. FFT enables the debugging of conducted emission measurements within a few seconds and that of radiated emissions in less than a minute. For instance, both achieve a fully compliant scan in Band B, i.e. between 150 kHz and 30 MHz, in just 2 seconds. Only 46 seconds are needed in bands C (30 MHz – 300 MHz) and D (300 MHz – 1 GHz). This makes them among the fastest receivers of their kind on the market today. The high quality of all models in the family is the same for each member. Differences between them are limited only to parameters such as performance and price level.

Full compliance and speed in EMC testing practice
It is well known that the demand for EMC testing is currently increasing very strongly and that the specific standard requirements are becoming more and more difficult to fulfil. There are more and more electronic controllers for practically everything and everywhere, so that the complexity of electromagnetic fields in the environment is constantly growing. At the same time, the time available until market launch to be competitive with a new product development is getting shorter and shorter. Against this background, it becomes clear how important standard-compliant and flexible, fast and reliable EMC tests are in every phase of the value chain. From debug tests in the design phase to pre-certification tests, reliable measurement data are increasingly needed.

R&D engineers are often under a lot of time pressure when it comes to their developments, right up to the deadline set for the product launch. It is not unusual for them to have to quickly test all possible combinations within a few days or even make final changes to the circuit directly on the test bench. Just to make sure that they are on the right track with their development work. At these moments, they need a real EMI receiver, one that is fully compliant with the standards and delivers precise and reliable results extremely quickly. They need the fastest receiver possible that meets all standard specifications. One like the new "PMM ER" series from Narda, which, because there is no time to study the manual for hours, is extremely user-friendly and intuitive to operate. The PMM ER8000 and PMM ER9000 models are fully compliant premium performance receivers that do not compromise on features/functionality, performance or speed. Even in pre-certification measurement results are consistent to those of accredited certification laboratories. Engineers and technicians can rely on this. The final certification thus becomes a mere formality.

The accessories and options
A certain "all-inclusive" mentality when it comes to the scope of delivery of their measuring instruments has a long tradition at Narda. An advantage – almost a unique selling proposition in view of the entire competitor – that makes the already fair purchase price appear in a particularly bright light. This means that almost all options such as preselector, preamplifier or filter are included in the package price. Even a powerful user-friendly graphic interface is provided, free of charge, in order to fully exploit all the receiver capabilities.

For example, both have a low-distortion preamplifier as well as a hardware option especially for CISPR 14-1 CA 0010 (Click Analyzer). The front end is extremely rugged and capable of withstanding up to 2 W of continuous input power. The ER8000/00 model is designed for a frequency range between 9 kHz and 30 MHz, the ER8000/01 goes up to 3 GHz. The ER8000 has an integrated LISN (Line Impedance Stabilization Network) for measuring conducted emissions. Its compact size and rugged yet lightweight design make it the perfect solution for in-situ testing.

The ER9000/00 is specified from 10 Hz to 30 MHz. In the /01 option, it also ranges up to 3 GHz. Both the ER8000/00 and ER9000/00 can be easily upgraded to 3 GHz. The ER9000 is additionally equipped with a second, low-noise preamplifier, which stands for low noise and has an excellent signal-to-noise ratio. In addition, it has a "Continuous Wave Gernerator" (CW Generator) on board, with which further tests can be carried out as well as self-tests, a self-calibration of the device and of components like cables, attenuators and coupling devices. It is also equipped with a "CISPR Pulse Generator", a tool for certification and calibration of receivers. Finally, its colour touch screen display and onboard batteries qualify it as an ideal portable receiver for stand-alone operation.