Predicting vehicle-level EMC performance utilizing on-bench component characterization results

This paper proposes a simple, but powerful technique to predict the system-level electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) performance from the results of on-bench component characterization. Using a network analyzer, the components of a vehicle ignition system were characterized on-bench up to 1 GHz, and then the results were manipulated numerically to estimate the system-level performance. Results have shown that the prediction matches the open-area-test-site (OATS) test results pretty well, which shows that this can be a very handy tool for predicting possible system-level problems from component-level features, or the problems can be traced down to subsystem-/component-level to pinpoint the troublesome bottle neck(s).