Seminar – Utilizing Reverberation Chambers as a Versatile Test Environment for Assessing the Performance of Components and Systems

Co-sponsored by: Washington State University Everett

Electromagnetic reverberation chambers have been used for many years by the Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) community to measure the susceptibility and emissions for various electronic components and systems. This presentation describes how statistical processes were used to reduce the uncertainty of these chambers to a level necessary for precision metrology applications. These processes were applied to the calibration of electromagnetic field probes and the assessment of antenna efficiencies. A brief comparison of traditional calibration methods employing transverse electromagnetic (TEM) cells and anechoic chambers to the new statistical reverberant environment will be shown.

The presentation also goes on to explain how these techniques were later applied to a wide variety of aircraft measurements. A technique which utilizes two side by side reverberation chambers sharing a common wall with an arbitrary shaped aperture, useful for the assessment of component shielding, will be discussed.  Utilizing this same approach, it is possible to assess the shielding of large structures such as commercial aircraft.  These aircraft shielding measurements are necessary for High Intensity Radiated Field Susceptibility (HIRF) certifications.

With the proliferation of wireless devices it is important to understand how they behave in complex electromagnetic environments and how they interact with other devices and systems in which they are collocated . Aircraft environments have been shown to behave similarly to reverberation chambers and therefore these techniques can be employed to study propagation environments and system interactions. This presentation will give examples of how these techniques were employed to measure bulk absorption used to simulate passenger loading of aircraft, field mapping which is useful for the evaluation of signal coverage and channel interference as well as signal propagation characteristics.

Location:
Room: 256
Bldg: WSU Everett
915 N. Broadway
Everett, Washington
98201