Bench testing individual PCBs for immunity

I used to wonder why it was that circuits which worked so well on my test bench, often suffered from unacceptable levels of noise and/or distortion when first integrated into a product. The product integrator would have to fiddle around for days, maybe weeks, with the product’s cabling and construction to achieve its functional specifications.

Then when the product was integrated into a system, the same thing happened – the system integrator/installer would have to fiddle around for days, maybe weeks, to achieve the functional specs that I had already proved my circuits met – on my test bench.

Later on, when the system or installation was modified, the circuit’s noise performance would sometimes degrade again making it necessary to fiddle around once again, to recover the original specification.

Published in The EMC Journal, www.theemcjournal.com, Issue 92, January 2011

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