Whitepaper

EMC Standards Overview

Published by Amplifier Research

This application note provides a structured overview of the major international and regional organizations responsible for developing and maintaining electromagnetic compatibility standards. It explains the four test categories — Radiated Immunity, Radiated Emissions, Conducted Immunity, and Conducted Emissions — and then surveys the key standards bodies, including the IEC and its subcommittees CISPR and TC 77, along with ISO, ITU, CENELEC, ETSI, the US DoD (MIL-STD-461 and MIL-STD-464), the FCC, and ANSI. The document outlines how standards are categorized as basic, generic, or product-specific, and walks through the IEC publication lifecycle from preliminary stage through approval. It concludes with practical guidance on which version of a standard to use, noting that military testing requires adherence to the exact revision specified in a contract, while commercial testing generally demands compliance with the latest published version. Major product segments and their governing standards — automotive, aviation, military, medical, ISM, and multimedia — are also summarized.