Design and Evaluation of Test Waveforms Emitted by Portable Electronic Devices for Radiated Susceptibility Testing of Avionic Systems

Abstract

Assessing the electromagnetic interference (EMI) susceptibility of aircraft systems to transmitting portable electronic devices is challenging. Existing waveforms for susceptibility testing use amplitude modulation: MIL-STD-461 recommends the use of pulse-modulated waveforms, whereas the radio technical commission for aeronautics recommends the use of filtered noise. The ability of such waveforms to represent the EMI of complex communication signals is unknown. This paper expands upon a parameter reduction process for the development of candidate waveforms that are representative of long-term evolution (LTE) signals: single-carrier frequency division multiple access, filtered noise, and pulsemodulated waveforms are proposed as candidate signals for radiated susceptibility testing. The waveforms were evaluated by measuring the EMI response of avionic equipment that was exposed to the waveforms in an anechoic chamber. The measured data were analyzed to determine whether the bandwidth and the peak-to-average power ratio had significant effects on the measured EMI compared to real LTE signals. The proposed method is general and can be used for other communication standards.