Ever thought about bringing a product you’ve designed to market? This book is for you. There is a regulatory minefield surrounding certification of electronics products and this book will help you traverse it. Depending on the type of product, you will have to think about at least some of the following:
- SAR (Specific Absorption Rate) – measures the rate of absorption of RF energy by the human body
- EMC (Electromagnetic Compatibility) – related to unintentional generation, propagation and reception of electromagnetic energy
- Safety – choking hazards, high voltage etc
- Environmental – many countries have electronics waste programs that deal with how the product should be disposed
- Medical – if your product is medical related there is a whole suite of regulations just for this type of product
This book aims to give you an overview of all of these regulations, which ones apply and how to go about getting your product to market.
If your product emits RF energy above the low KHz range either intentionally or not, then you you will require FCC verification testing which costs several thousands of dollars. FCC testing among electronics vendors largely operates under a don’t ask, don’t tell policy. As in, nobody bothers doing it because it’s so expensive but don’t expect them to openly tell you this. Ignorance is bliss in the world of FCC verification.
Lets play a game. Have a look through your inventory of electronics widgets. Anything with a microcontroller, FPGA, FTDI chip, or anything that is probably clocked at a few MHz. How many of these boards have FCC testing? Bonus points if you can’t find any.
