Archived page. These seminars are no longer offered. Don Heirman died on October 30, 2020, and Don HEIRMAN Consultants is closed. This page is preserved as part of the historical record of his work. For current educational content, see EMC standards.

Don HEIRMAN Consultants offered four standing seminar/workshop formats, designated DHC-1 through DHC-4, covering EMC emission measurement standards, standards comparison, corporate compliance strategy, and the international standardization system. They were typically requested after changes to the referenced standards were published, could be linked together, and could be held in-plant or as public presentations with costs shared among corporate sponsors. The descriptions below are preserved from the archived site (2019) in past tense.

What did DHC-1, the Introduction to CISPR 32 workshop, cover?

This day-and-a-half workshop provided an in-depth review of the latest edition of the CISPR 32 standard, which covers compliance measurements of emissions from multimedia products, including information technology equipment and broadcast receivers. The workshop included several learning and hands-on modules, among them a half day in a test lab. CISPR 32 was an important standard because it replaced the widely used CISPR 22 (EN 55022) for ITE emissions and CISPR 13 (EN 55013) for broadcast receiver emissions.

What did DHC-2, the EMC Standards Comparison workshop, cover?

This full-day workshop focused on a direct comparison between the measurement portions of the latest edition of CISPR 32 and ANSI C63.4 (including the revision of test site validation 30 MHz to 1 GHz) for making radiated and conducted emission measurements. It included the proposed changes to both documents showing the further harmonization between them on measuring maximum or near-maximum emissions. Remaining differences were highlighted as they affected product compliance and associated testing, especially where different tests were necessary to adhere to each standard. Don Heirman was uniquely placed to teach this comparison: he chaired the ANSI C63.4 working group and had chaired CISPR itself (see his biography).

What did DHC-3, the compliance strategy assessment workshop, cover?

This workshop addressed corporate EMC regulatory compliance strategies, which are generally complex. Such strategies are typically based on the cost of compliance, what the competition and suppliers are doing, customer expectations, the emphasis placed on compliance by regulators, the global nature of EMC requirements, and corporate goals, practices, and margins with respect to meeting regulatory and contractual limits. The half-day workshop could be followed by up to a further half day reviewing a corporation’s EMC documentation with its EMC personnel and management.

What did DHC-4, the international EMC standards review, cover?

This half-day seminar reviewed the work of the major international EMC standards organizations. The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), located in Geneva, Switzerland, is the principal international EMC standards body. For most major electronic products using microprocessor/computer technology, the IEC International Special Committee on Radio Interference (CISPR) is the source of emission measurement methods and limits, and, by reference, of immunity standards produced by IEC Technical Committee 77 (TC 77). The seminar reviewed the work of CISPR and introduced that of TC 77.

The archived site also noted that other workshops on EMC standards-related topics would be considered on request.

Where can I find this material today?

The workshop teaching itself ended with Don Heirman’s death in 2020, but much of the underlying material survives. His IEEE EMC Symposium workshop papers on measurement sites, associated errors, and measurement uncertainty are listed on the Publications page and can be found in IEEE Xplore. His broader teaching archive is held at Purdue University Libraries Special Collections. Current explanations of the standards covered in these workshops are maintained in the EMC standards section. The consultancy’s full service portfolio is preserved on the archived Major services page.