Recent development regarding IEC 61000-2-5, description and classification of electromagnetic environments

Knowledge of the electromagnetic environment in which equipment is intended to be operated is an essential precondition for the achievement of electromagnetic compatibility. The necessity of such knowledge stems from the fact that suitable immunity requirements can only be derived from the corresponding data of the electromagnetic environment. The description of a general electromagnetic environment should include a multitude of phenomena having a broad spectrum of parameters. However, such a general description is not helpful in most cases since it implies that immunity against all such phenomena has to be demonstrated. A practical way forward consists of introducing a classification scheme that presents a correlation between locations and the electromagnetic phenomena existing at the said location. This approach forms the basis of the EMC publication IEC 61000-2-5. The electromagnetic environment is continuously changing due to the introduction of new technologies and the implementation of new applications of existing technologies. An example is the introduction of radio and communication devices (and services) operating at frequencies above 1 GHz. There is therefore a need to continually monitor the electromagnetic environment and update the description of the associated electromagnetic phenomena. Such a process is currently being performed by a working group of IEC TC 77. The output of its work should be the object of the next edition of IEC 61000-2-5. The present status as well as expected changes will be discussed in this paper.