ABSTRACT
EMC standards and the associated design effort aim in the first instance to comply with certain requirements that have legal force. It may be assumed that equipment that satisfies EMC regulations is “safe.” This would be a bold statement and in many cases it would be untrue. It is quite possible to comply with EMC standards and yet find that in practice a product may fail in an unsafe manner due to EM disturbances. This should not come as a surprise as EMC standards are not formulated with safety in mind. Their background, imposed limits, and way of thinking come from the need to protect the radio spectrum and not explicitly to make equipment safe. Although safety is a legal requirement, EMC standards do not offer any explicit guidance as to how to proceed. There are also a few cases where designers may perceive a conflict between making a product EMC compliant and safe. If one looks at safety standards for guidance on EMC matters the situation is similar — there is very little coverage on this issue. It therefore appears that there is a divide between the way engineers practice EMC and functional safety. This divide is rooted in the different approach of the two communities. Traditionally in EMC, verification is done by testing one or a few samples without regard to the design and construction practices employed in producing equipment.1
