A Review On Links Between Different EMC Test Environments In Medical Technologies

From electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) perspective, electromagnetic test environments can be broadly classified as controlled or uncontrolled environments. Different types of standardized EMC test environments are available and those are controlled environments. That is to ensure the reproducibility of the test results. However, the actual intended use environments of most electrical equipment (e.g., medical electrical equipment) are uncontrolled. Therefore, it is crucial to develop the tools to evaluate the correlations between controlled and uncontrolled test environments to realize a risk-based EMC approach. Such an approach would facilitate better prediction of actual risks in the (uncontrolled) environments where those equipment are intended to be used. That would help achieve an effective risk management. This paper emphasizes the need for studying links between different EMC test environments and also details a brief review of approaches to relating to establishing such links. The scope of this work is bound to EMC in the medical electrical equipment domain with respect to radiated emissions.