Antenna Selection For Automotive EMC Emissions and Immunity Applications
Antenna Selection For Automotive EMC Emissions and Immunity Applications
Antenna Selection For Automotive EMC Emissions and Immunity Applications
The International Standards Organization (ISO) does not have any equivalent standard
for emissions for a fully loaded vehicle. The ISO standards concentrate purely on
immunity as discussed below.
The standards above listed call for testing on an OATS (open area test site) type
environment. The OATS must be an area clean of any reflective structures for a 30-m
radius measured from a mid-point between the vehicle and the antenna (Figure 1).
These are basically the requirements listed in CISPR 16 for any large automotive
objects. Both CISPR12 and SAE J551-2 use this wording for the OATS requirements.
Annexes IV and V of 95/54 EC use a similar description for the OATS and refers to
CISPR 16.
The antenna is fixed at 3m above the ground onto which the vehicle rests for the 10-m
test distance and 1.8 m for the 3-m test distance. At each point of measurement,
readings must be taken for both horizontal and vertical polarizations. The antenna
cannot be closer that 1 m to any of the RF absorbent material that lines the chamber
walls and ceiling. For vehicles with an internal combustion engine, the vehicle shall be
operated during each measurements. Because of this requirement, an exhaust system
is required in the chamber as well as a dynamometer. The frequency range is from 30 to
1000 MHz for all SAE J511-2, CISPR-12, and 95/54 EC.
RECOMMENDED ANTENNAS FOR EMISSIONS TESTING
The recommended antennas for emission testing are listed on Table 1. The rest of the
present section is dedicated to a description of the antennas in closer detail.
MHz log-periodic.
transition that shows no bumps or spikes in the AF in the 70-MHz to 200-MHz range
(Figure 8).
The combination of the antennas presented above will cover all the needs for emissions
testing from full vehicles per the product test standards.
ISO 11451-2
SAE J551-11
95/54 EC Annex VI
All these standards have similar wording. The SAE and the ISO are virtual copies of
each other, and they both require a high severity level of 100 V/m.1 ISO contemplates
an additional level of severity to be agreed upon between the test house and the
manufacturer. This document assumes that the additional level of severity is an internal
requirement of the customer that does not fall within the standard. The present solution
concentrates on field levels lower than or equal to 100 V/m.
Additionally, the solution presented assumes that the field uniformity requirements are
those stated in the standard. These requirements specify (for SAE and ISO) that the
required field level be generated at a reference point located 1 m above the ground on
which the vehicle rests (2 m for vehicles higher than 3 m) and at two points 75 cm on
either side of the reference point. At these points, the field level should be within 3 dB of
the reference level. For 95/54 EC the points are 50 cm on either side, and the highest
level of severity is 24 V/m with 80% AM modulation. For 95/54 EC the field at the
adjacent points must be at least half of the field at the reference point.
For SAE and ISO, the Field Uniformity requirement applies over 200 MHz; for 95/54 EC
it applies above 20 MHz. Both polarizations can be tested if required by the standard
document.
Solution
The antennas for field generation that are recommended in this article cover the 100kHz to 18-GHz range. As might be expected, several antennas and a transmission line
system are required for this range. An E/H field generator is used for the 100-kHz to 30MHz range. A high power biconical antenna is the recommended choice for the 30-MHz
to 100-MHz range, and a double ridge guide horn for the 100-MHz to 1-GHz range.
These antennas are the best possible solution to meet the requirements of the SAE and
the ISO standards. Above 1GHz, the suggested solution is the use of octave gain horns
or standard gain horns.
The 95/54 EC standard document describes the testing of immunity over the 20-MHz to
1-GHz range with a severity level of at 24 V/m with 80% AM modulation. The use of a
foreshortened log-periodic and dual log arrays is better. However, foreshortened logs
place the low frequency elements too far from the reference point to be able to generate
the very high fields required by the SAE and the ISO standards. For the 95/54 EC
directive, where the field levels are low and the range of frequencies not too wide, the
foreshortened log-periodic and dual log arrays can meet the requirements with power
levels of 5 kW maximum.
100 kHz to 30 MHz Testing
For frequencies below 30 MHz, manageable size antennas are not very efficient.
Wavelengths rise to the order of tens of meters and half wavelength resonant radiators
become too large to fit inside a chamber. Consequently, all the above-mentioned
standards allow for the use of transmission line systems or TLS.
There are different types of TLS that can be used. In some of them, the element is a
solid plate that is driven against ground to generate a vertical electric field between the
plate and the floor similar to one present in a capacitor. It is important to have a good
terminal resistor for the TLS so that no standing waves appear along its length. Another
type of TLS system consists of two conductors suspended above ground (Figure 9).
As can be seen in Figure 9, the structure is supported from the ceiling by four anchor
points. The elements can be both driven together against the ground (even mode) or
against each other isolated from ground (odd mode). The even mode (Figures 10)
generates a vertical polarized electric field while the odd mode (Figure 11) generates a
horizontal polarized electric field.
positioner.
Figure 13. Field level at 3.5 m from the
high power biconical antenna for a 10-kW input.
The graph in Figure 13 shows measurements that were performed with the antenna
placed 2 m above ground and 3.5 meters from the reference point. The reference point
was located 1 m above the ground.
Dual-ridge Horn Antennas
Larger dual-ridge horns are now available (Figure 14). These new horns bring down to
100 MHz the behavior of the typical traditional dual-ridge horn used from 200 MHz to 1
Ghz in MIL-STD 461E.2 These horns have gains of 9 dBi on average which is more
than the typical log-periodic antenna used in EMC.
antenna phase center according to all the standards). The computation shows that 500
Watts is all that it is needed to obtain the required 100-V/m CW field levels at a distance
of 2 m from the aperture (Figure 16). (NOTE: computed data do not take into account
the cable loss, but give a general idea of the power requirements.).
Some vendors offer dual log-periodic arrays to increase the gain of their log-periodics.
These are structures just as large as the 100-MHz dual ridge horn, and they require the
use of power splitters and phase match cables, which increases the cost.
performance.
requirements for 100 v/m at 2 m.
This solution is better suited for chambers that are larger than 9 m of height. In smaller
chambers, the resonant behaviors are excited in the range of 20 to 30 MHz. Based on
the data above, 36 V/m can be generated at 3 m from the tip of the antenna with less
than 3 kW of power.
(2.67 kW at 20 MHz).
Figure 19. Measured field level
at the reference point for the foreshortened log antenna.
CONCLUSION
This article has shown recommended antenna solutions for automotive EMC testing to
meet the requirements of the most important international standards.
REFERENCES
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