Every consumer electronics product has to comply with standards for electromagnetic radiation to ensure that any emitted radiation is not harmful to those who use it. The same principle applies for industrial electronic devices; there are strict rules regarding the amount of emitted radiation which is permitted. In both cases, the device’s manufacturer must prove that radiation emitted is within the allowed range. A more precise measurement of this radiation means that a smaller margin of error has to be applied and thus makes it easier it to meet the certification criteria.

We were approached by a customer with the aim of building high-precision measurement equipment for electric and magnetic fields for certification purposes. The baseboard that carries the electromagnetic sensors and all required analog electronics is being developed by the customer, and is equipped with a small, custom FPGA module. This module, as well as the FPGA firmware running on it, is being developed by Enclustra. The firmware contains a wide array of signal processing to correct any measurement distortions caused by the analog electronics, as well as complex data-logging logic and an interface to a host PC, where the final data processing is applied and the certification criteria evaluated.

Thanks to the use of ready-to-use Enclustra IP cores in this project, the development effort has been greatly reduced: FPGA Manager USB 2.0 is used for the communication with the host PC, and the buffering logic is mainly implemented using the Stream Buffer Controller IP Core.

Click through to read more about some of our customer projects.