Certification, EMC Testing, and Standards Update

North America (FCC, Industry Canada): 

The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology (OET) laboratory division released an update to KDB Publication Number 447498 on January 29th, 2013; which updates the RF Exposure requirements for Mobile and Portable devices, located in Title 47 CFR Part 1 Section 1.1307, Part 2 Section 2.1091, and Part 2 Section 2.1093.  The KDB Publication can be found here.

The attachments to the KDB 447498 D01, and 447498 D02 are the general RF Exposure Guidance document and the SAR procedures for a dongle transmitter respectively.  Additional attention should be observed for equipment types outlined in KDB 628591, the exclusion list for telecommunication certification bodies (TCBs).  The exclusions of evaluation for these equipment types includes specific absorption rates (SAR) RF exposure evaluations. The TCB Exclusion List KDB Publication can be found here. 

Industry Canada released Notice 2012-DRS1203 in response to the revision of the FCC RF Exposure KDB procedure, and the applicability of those requirements to Industry Canada.  In addition, there is further guidance on the applicability of other procedures when seeking certification for the Canadian market.  A copy of the Notice from the Certification and Engineering Bureau can be found here.

The Ministry of Economy (Secretaria de Economia) of Mexico published new requirements for equipment related to telecommunications standards NOM-121-STC1-2009 and NOM-151-SCT1-1999; or specifically equipment utilizing Spread Spectrum techniques such as Bluetooth modules, Bluetooth Low Energy, WiFi modules (802.11 b/g/n), and Zigbee products.

The following agreements were made as of January 11, 2013:  

1. All imported equipment related to NOM-121 is now required to present verification of compliance at customs by either presenting a Certificate of Compliance issued by an accredited certification body of Mexico such as NYCE, or a Homologation Certificate issued from COFETEL.

2. NYCE has pledged that the certification process shall not exceed a period of 10 days from submission of the application, and will send the issued certificates to the Ministry of Economy to be entered into the system, which will prevent delays when customs is reviewing compliance.

3. The name of the importer does not need to match the name of the recipient of the certification (with either case, NYCE or COFETEL)

4. Equipment with COFETEL Homologation Certifications have additional requisites specific to labeling

Europe:

The European Union Association of Notified Bodies released a reference document reviewing the EMC Testing requirements for products that integrate radio modules.  LSR has written several articles regarding this process, such has our September 25, 2012 Blog on what to do after you've integrated a Wifi module into your product, and our news article on integrating radio modules for Europe published July 2, 2012. 

The EUANB Reference document points out that the relevant requirements against the various applicable directives of non-radio based equipement may not harmonize to the requirements of the R&TTE directive placed upon a radio based module.  

Prior to leveraging a modular device's conformity document to demonstrate compliance once itegrated into a product, an assessment of the test methods and requrements must be performed against the outlined product requirements and the performed modular radio testing. Instances which the conformity requirements of the product and module are not harmonized, the more stringent requirements shall take precedence, and the equipement shall be monitored for appropriate operation.