New products at the EMC & Compliance International Conference

At the annual UK event, Tekbox, Y.I.C. Technologies, and Harogic Technologies were among the companies exhibiting new EMC measurement equipment.

The EMC & Compliance International conference and training was held again in Newbury, UK, from May 22 to 23 this year (Reference 1). This was my first opportunity to attend this annual conference hosted by Keith Armstrong and his associates at Cherry Clough. Associate Dr. Min Zhang (MACH One) and Yinan Yang headed the organizing and administration.

Figure 1. During the training session, Dr. Min Zhang of MACH One Consulting instructed on EMC testing and common test lab errors.

This year, there were two parallel tracks: conference and training. The conference comprised general reports and technical presentations by a comprehensive slate of industry experts and vendors. At the same time, the training track was presented by Cherry Clough associates and myself and was meant to be a training opportunity for engineers new to the field of EMC (Figure 1).

Figure 2. Exhibitors showed their equipment during the conference.

The conference also included over a dozen local UK exhibitors (Figure 2), and I’d like to highlight some new product introductions, many of which surprised me.

Tekbox Digital Solutions

Let’s start with Tekbox, a now well-established EMC test equipment manufacturer based in Vietnam. Tekbox was hosted by Telonic Instruments, one of the UK’s largest test equipment distributors. Tekbox provides many affordable EMC test and measurement products.

I’ve had the pleasure of working with their CEO, Michael Mayerhofer, over the years and finally met him in person.

One of the biggest surprises to me was their development of a fast-capture spectrum analyzer for military and commercial conducted emissions (Figure 3). The TBMR-110M covers DC to 110 MHz; it includes a 7-band pre-selector filter, 30 dBm (max) input power, and a built-in 1 Hz to 110 MHz tracking generator. It will measure peak, Q-peak, average, CISPR-average, RMS, and CISPR-RMS working in parallel and with CISPR 16, ANSI, and MIL-STD detectors. The tracking generator lets you characterize LISNs and filter circuits.

Figure 3. Tekbox’s new TBMR-110M EMI Analyzer measured emissions from an LM3481 flyback converter EVM board.

Several pre-defined standards are ready to load with stand-alone or PC-controlled control (with EMCView software). Arbitrary RBW and VBW from 0.1 Hz to 3.5 MHz are available. The equipment includes zero span with time-domain triggering. The unit consists of a 250 MS/sec 110 MHz BW oscilloscope, FM/AM/SSB demodulator, and IQ stream generator. The price is just £6,045 (approx. $7,644).

Tekbox also announced the TBVNA-6000 vector-network analyzer (VNA), which covers a frequency range of 1 Hz to 6 GHz. Figure 4 shows the characteristics of one of their 750 MHz RF current probes. Mayerhofer confirmed the price will be the same as the TBMR-110M receiver, but prices may vary from distributor to distributor. For example, the price is expected to be $7,490 from Saelig, a U.S. distributor. As of this writing, the VNA is not listed on Tekbox’s website.

Figure 4. The new Tekbox TBVNA-6000 characterizes the transfer impedance of an RF current probe from 100 Hz to 1 GHz.

There’s a big clue that their VNA may be designed to compete with Omicron Lab‘s Bode 100 and Bode 500 VNA models, primarily used for frequency response analysis of power conversion control loops and characterization of electronic components. The clue? Tekbox introduced two wideband injection transformers, the TBJT01 (Figure 5) and TBJT02.

Figure 5. The Tekbox TBJT01 wideband injection transformer uses a VNA to characterize power conversion control loops for stability.

Wideband injection transformers provide galvanic isolation between a swept signal source from the VNA and the control loop of an active power converter circuit. This allows a swept gain and phase plot versus frequency and loop stability to be evaluated in real-time and with varying loads applied, which is a valuable tool when designing power conversion circuits.

The TBJT01 covers 10 Hz to 45 MHz, and the TBJT02 covers 1 Hz to 7 MHz. Saelig will sell either injection transformer for $389.

Y.I.C. Technologies

Y.I.C. Technologies is well-known for its X-Y electromagnetic field mapping equipment. Yoram Shimoni, CEO of Y.I.C. Technologies, and marketing manager Cornelle Roberts introduced their new Near Field Probe Kit electromagnetic field mapper, which is based on optical tracking of real-time probing of an active board.

Figure 6. Attendees saw a demonstration of the field mapper in use.

Figure 6 shows the basic setup, which uses an Anritsu MS2080A spectrum analyzer to capture frequency information and an overhead camera to track the probe position. By placing an active PC board on a flat target and using the supplied near-field probes (Figure 7), the fields appear as “heat maps” over a photo of the board under test. The heat map appears as the probe moves over the board.

Figure 7. The test equipment generates a heat map of the fields in real time as the near-field probe is scanned over the active PC board.

Harogic Technologies

Lambda Photometrics, a local UK distributor, demonstrated the Harogic USB-powered real-time spectrum analyzer line. The model SAE-200 (Figure 8) fits in your hand and covers 9 kHz to 20 GHz. It includes a 19-section preselection filter and claims a 1.2 THz/sec spectrum sweep speed. The real-time bandwidth is 100 MHz, with the probability of intercept (POI) of pulsed RF as narrow as 0.5 µs. The price is £6,915 ($8,744).

Figure 8. The Harogic SAE-200 is a USB-powered real-time spectrum analyzer that covers 9 kHz to 20 GHz.

Their more affordable model, SAM-60 M3, covers 9 kHz to 6.3 GHz with the same real-time BW and POI but does not include preselectors. It costs £2,859 ($3,615).

Finally, Harogic recently introduced the portable PXE-200, based on its SAE-200 design (Figure 9). The unit includes a 10.1-inch color touchscreen and weighs 1.5 kg (3.3 pounds). Its price is £7,322 ($9,259).

Figure 9. Harogic’s new PXE-200 portable real-time spectrum analyzer with a 10.1-inch color touchscreen covers 9 kHz to 20 GHz with a real-time BW of 100 MHz.

Harogic also has free downloadable software for their USB models, SAStudio 4.

Summary

The two-day conference was packed with activities, and attendance was double that of 2023. Many new products have come to the market, and I found it difficult to limit this article to only the highlights. The organizers are considering increasing the event to three full days next year. I hope to review some of these new products in the coming months.