With the level of electrical and electronics content in vehicles across segments increasing exponentially every passing year, there is an impact on associated development and validation lifecycles which need to address special verification/validation needs of EVUs and other E&E aggregates.

EMI-EMC (Electromagnetic interference & Electromagnetic compatibility) chamber testing is one area where the automotive engineering community faces challenges towards passing the tests with minimal and early design iterations. At present, there are very few facilities available in India which addresses the need for validating automotive industry-specific norms.

It is to address such challenges as well as a business opportunity that Spark Minda, Ashok Minda Group has enhanced its R&D Centre in Pune with SMIT (Spark Minda Technical Center, as a division of Minda Corporation.

Anechoic chamber with antenna.

The facility now has a state-of-the-art EMI-EMC testing laboratory that covers the entire spectrum of EMI-EMC tests – radiated emissions, radiated immunity, conducted emissions and conducted immunity apart from ESD testing and automotive transient pulse testing.  The laboratory is located in the premises of Spark Minda Technical Center (SMIT) which houses a hi-tech development facility for automotive embedded systems.

A unique feature of this facility, according to the company, is availability of the competent design team/embedded laboratory to provide end-to-end solutions to customers, enabling them to pass their tests through quick design iterations.

The EMI-EMC test laboratory.

The SMIT team also offers RF/EMI-EMC simulation services for making early design corrections when the controller design is available only in soft domain – PCB Gerber files, bill of material and schematics.

Many customers including leading Tier 1 automotive suppliers and OEMs have already started availing of these services. The laboratory is actively pursuing steps required to obtain NABL accreditation shortly. 

According to Suresh D, Group CTO, Spark Minda, Ashok Minda Group and CEO - Spark Minda Technical Center, “Our EMI-EMC facilities address long-felt needs and pain-points of the Indian automotive engineering community.  We are looking forward to act as a testing partner to most of the automotive subsystem suppliers and ensure them an early success in meeting required EMI-EMC testing norms for their designs.”