(IEC: Geneva) --A new edition of one of the International Electrotechnical Commission's (IEC) best-selling publications dealing with electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) will be published in a few days.

The importance of EMC phenomenon is such that in 1993 the first edition of IEC 61000-4-8—"Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC)—Part 4-8: Testing and measurement techniques—Power frequency magnetic field immunity test," was one of the first basic EMC immunity publications to be released. Edition 2.0 takes into account experience gained in testing equipment using that standard. It clarifies the test setups and contains revised characteristics, performance, and verification of the test generator to simplify that test.

This new edition is part of the IEC 61000 series of standards, which is divided into six parts. The various parts deal with the fundamental principles of EMC: related terminology, the environment and compatibility levels, emission and immunity limits, testing and measurement techniques, installation and mitigation guidelines, and methods and devices. Each part is further subdivided into several parts that are published either as international standards, technical specifications, or technical reports. The present publication is an international standard that provides immunity requirements and test procedures related to power frequency magnetic fields.

IEC 61000-4-8 has the status of a basic EMC publication (a reference document that is used by many other IEC technical committees in defining their own EMC specifications) in accordance with IEC Guide 107.

The object of this standard is to establish a common and reproducible basis for evaluating the performance of electrical and electronic equipment for household, commercial, and industrial applications when subjected to magnetic fields at power frequencies (continuous and short duration fields).

IEC Subcommittee (SC) 77A: Low frequency phenomena is responsible for this publication. It is chaired by Jean Bertin-Mahieux of Canada. The SC prepares those basic EMC publications relevant to the specification of electromagnetic environments, immunity, test procedures, measurement techniques, and so on for EMC phenomena up to a frequency of 9 kHz. It also prepares the product-family EMC standards (group of similar products for which the same standards can be applied) dealing with emission in this low frequency range.

"Magnetic fields at a 50 Hz or 60 Hz frequency, depending on the geographical location, are created by the electrical conductors carrying electrical currents. Consequently, all electrical and electronic equipment is influenced by that magnetic field. The closer the equipment is to these conductors, the greater the intensity," says Jean Bertin-Mahieux.

"IEC 61000-4-8 is referred to in the generic EMC standards IEC 61000-6-1—"Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC)—Part 6-1: Generic standards—Immunity for residential, commercial and light-industrial environments," and IEC 61000-6-2—"Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC)—Part 6-2: Generic standards—Immunity for industrial environments." It is cited, too, in various dedicated product or product-family EMC immunity standards. IEC 61000-4-8 is very often used to check the effects of a magnetic field on the equipment to help the equipment designers during the design phase.