Characterization of a comtest 5 x 4 x 3 m3 reverberating chamber

A 5x4 m reverberating chamber of 3 m height has recently been installed in the group EES at Eindhoven University of Technology. The room is intended for EMC studies of emission and immunity of equipment and for the coupling of installation cables and shielding structures. Initially the room will be used up to 1 GHz; the final goal is 40 GHz. The lowest usable frequency depends on the room size. The quality factor and the electrical field strength related to the input power have been modeled to predict the chambers behavior. Model and the measurements match acceptably well. A simulation has been preformed as well with a Method of Moments model (FEKO) and indicates that the room fulfills the IEC requirements (less than 4 – 3 dB standard deviation) on statistical field uniformity starting at 200 MHz. Higher frequencies up to 1 GHz have been calculated as well, and agreement with IEC has been observed. The calibration results were not in line with the models and simulation. The models, simulations and an investigation of the calibration results have proved that the calibration contains errors. Comtest is writing new software to correct these errors to recalibrate the room in the near future.