The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Electromagnetics facility coming up at Taramani

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 15, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Electromagnetics facility coming up at Taramani

Ramya Kannan

Software for automated evaluation of electronic equipment developed The indigenous software will be on sale at Rs. 25 lakhs and can be purchased by other testing/calibration centres in the country

CHENNAI: Complete automation of the evaluation process for Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) and Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) of electronic equipment is the latest addition to the state-of-art national testing facility, SAMEER - Centre for Electromagnetics, Taramani, which will be dedicated to the nation on Friday.

SAMEER has developed software unique to its process of gauging the EMI and EMC performance of any electronic equipment, automating it entirely, thus halving the time for testing and reducing the margin of error, its programme director, S. Karunakaran told The Hindu .

Regulating factors

Christened `EMITEST,' the software will be used to regulate the various factors required for testing equipment.

It will be released on Friday, when Minister for Communication Dayanidhi Maran and DMK leader M. Karunanidhi launch the facility.

"When we make measurements, several factors have to be controlled. For instance, in the radiated susceptibility test, the frequency and radiated frequency power must be changed at accurately regularly intervals," Dr. Karunakaran explained.

Automatic parameters

"EMITEST sets the parameters automatically, verifies that the parameters are in place in a pre-test check and then tests the equipment."

Doing this manually is difficult, because it involves adjusting five or six instruments and leaves open a margin of error that cannot be evaluated.

With the software, this margin of error will be reduced substantially and as accurate a measurement as is possible will be arrived at. While reducing the time taken for the test by half, the software will also bring down the cost of testing.

At present, depending on the kind of service that a manufacturer requires, SAMEER charges between Rs. 5,000 and Rs. 60,000 for testing.

This indigenous software is going to be up for sale at an approximate cost of Rs. 25 lakhs and can be purchased by other testing/calibration centres in the country.

Two programmes

Only two such programmes are being used throughout the world: software written by TDK, United States and the other by a German firm, Rhode and Schwarz, Dr. Karunakaran said.

The SAMEER lab was set up over four years with grants totalling Rs. 10 crores from the Department of Information Technology and Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.

Accredited

It has been accredited by the National Accreditation Board for Laboratories and also possesses an ISO:9001 certification.

One of its main activities is to help Indian electronic equipment manufacturers and users to identify the EMI problems in their products and achieve compatibility, according to K.R. Kini, director, SAMEER.

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