2009 Issue

31 A FTER THESE FEW INTRODUCTORY SENTENCES, a few of you may be asking who can I go to for help in this process? Also, be aware that this process is not inexpensive, and money will change hands often throughout the process. Why do we need to test and certify the latest widget or gadget we have designed? The number of reasons is vast. The biggest reason is it is the law for some types of products. Product safety concerns are addressed by some certification processes. Some certifications test conformance of your product to established standards. There are military standards which need to be met for devices sold to the military. Potential reasons for product certification are: • Market driven: USA, Canada, Europe, Japan, and others. Certification may be required to sell some products. Some retailers may require certain marks on products to sell in their stores. Europe requires demonstration of performance by testing and declaration. • Verify performance: for example, the University of New Hampshire (a 3rd party lab) offers testing for 802.11 devices (wireless network cards). • Military standards • Product safety: Underwriters Laboratory [UL], Electric Testing Laboratory [ETL], Canadian Standards Association [CSA], and others • Device will not cause explosive gases, such as those found in petroleum processing, mining operations, or others to ignite/react Items that may require testing and certification: • Computer equipment: desktops, laptops, printers, modems • Radio transmitters: radio modems, wireless local area network [LAN] cards for personal computers [PC], frame relay service [FRS] and general mobile radio service [GMRS] radios • Appliances: refrigerators, washing machines, dryers, blenders • Consumer goods: media players, like iPod • Cell phones and cellular base station equipment • Medical products: pacemakers, drugs therapies The foregoing shows some representative products that may require testing. You can see products that obviously need to be tested for reasons noted previously. Some may not be as obvious. For example, a computer needs to be tested to show that it will not hurt people for an obvious example, and not interferewith other criti- cal devices, less obvious. Radio transmitters must show that they conform to established standards by national and international regulatory agencies and directives. Appliances are tested to show that they do not hurt people and function correctly over a broad range of environmental factors. When someone sends their product to be certi- fied, what gets tested? That is product specific. In the European Community, there is a list of regulatory directives that specify the standards that products must meet before they can be sold (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Euro- pean_Union_directives). In the United States, regulatory agencies, such as Federal Commu- nication Commission [FCC] and Food and Drug Administration [FDA] have set standards for product testing and certification. Canada, Japan, Brazil, and other nations around the world have set or are creating standards, and the products we design are required to meet these standards by design and by test. Lastly, after all the testing is done, what hap- pens? For some regulatory agencies throughout the world, the results of the testing are sent through a review process, and application for approvals or licenses are submitted. When the agency agrees that you have completed a full due diligence and the test results reflect this, you will be issued licenses or approval certificates. Your product may need specific markings or labels (Figure 1), and these are specified by laws or directives. All the applications, certificates and licenses should be filed in a fire safe, and backed up for off-site storage and retrieval. Who can help me through this certification process? There are a few references to the certi- fication requirements on the internet, but many of these references are either too summary in nature, or too detailed to use. This is where a search for testing labs will yield contact informa- tion for the labs, and people there will be willing to assist you. There are also consultants that can deal specifically with which regulations apply for your product, and they can act as liaison to test labs for you. In summary, product certification may be required on many products before they can be sold. The latest gadget we have designed needs to meet regulatory laws and directives prior to manufacturing. These testing requirements are international in nature allowing distribution throughout the world. Test labs and consultants can be helpful through this process. Mr. Datwyler, is a professional electrical engineer with 24 years of experience in electronics product design and development, including hardware, firmware, and compliance. Mr. Datwyler is currently engaged in designing radio modems at 2.4GHz, performing hardware design and obtaining product certifications for international markets. Product Certification? DOUGLAS L DATWYLER, P. E. In today’s product development cycle, engineers are adding product testing and certification as a required step in the design process. This article explores why testing and certification are needed, what products need testing, what some of the tests test, and how to utilize the test results. Figure 1. Representative regulatory marks: UL (United States), Communauté Européenne [CE] (Europe), C-Tick (Australia), FCC (United States), Telecom Engineering Center [TELEC] (Japan)