Wi-fi expertise, comparable to cellphones, fitness trackers, and medical devices, has grow to be ubiquitous. Before a wireless device is manufactured and sold, its expertise is examined by compliance engineering laboratories to make sure it adheres to technical standards established by organizations together with the IEEE Standards Association.
Within the United States, the Federal Communications Commission oversees laws for all wi-fi gadgets, whereas the Food and Drug Administration focuses on medical technology. The 2 organizations typically work collectively.
RF Security Laboratory
Founder:
Steve Liu
Based:
2023
Headquarters:
Catonsville, Md.
Staff:
8
To assist tech corporations get their wi-fi gadgets licensed, IEEE Member Steve Liu based RF Safety Laboratory in 2023. The startup, primarily based in Catonsville, Md., focuses on particular absorption fee (SAR) testing, nerve stimulation testing, and measuring power density ranges of charging docks, surgical tools, tablets, and different merchandise. SAR testing measures the quantity of RF vitality absorbed by the human physique from a wi-fi machine. Nerve stimulation and energy density exams measure the instantaneous results on an individual’s nervous system.
Liu says lots of the lab’s shoppers, who’re primarily based in Japan, South Korea, and the US, need to promote their merchandise in Canada and the US, which have the strictest, most tough laws to navigate.
The lab focuses on guaranteeing wi-fi gadgets are certifiably protected, offering shoppers with peace of thoughts.
“Not everybody is aware of SAR ranges are publicly out there on the FCC web site,” Liu says.
Many product builders don’t notice that when integrating Wi-Fi or 5G into a tool, they should embrace shielding in opposition to radiation of their designs to guard people from extra radiation, Liu says.
“Startups and new designers of wi-fi expertise in these international locations don’t notice they’ll’t simply make a tool after which anticipate to have the ability to export it to North America,” he says. “As a rule, these corporations solely discover this out after they’ve already begun to market their merchandise to shoppers, inflicting them to be held by customs and border safety.”
If a product is discovered to be noncompliant with laws, the corporate can face important fines and authorized actions, and the machine might be recalled.
From testing engineer to startup founder
Liu isn’t any stranger to technical requirements and laws. After graduating with a bachelor’s diploma in biomedical and electrical engineering in 2000 from Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore, he joined PCTest Engineering Laboratory, in Columbia, Md. The corporate, now a part of Element, was created to supply regulatory and testing companies to the wi-fi, electronics, and telecommunications industries.
As a testing engineer, Liu assessed merchandise’ electromagnetic compatibility, RF publicity ranges, and hearing-aid compatibility. He additionally served as a member of the Telecommunication Certification Body, which assesses tools. He labored his manner up the profession ladder and, in 2018, was promoted to vice chairman of engineering, overseeing international compliance.
“Being an IEEE member has undoubtedly paid off for me.”
“I’ve licensed greater than 4,000 merchandise for corporations together with Apple, Motorola, Samsung, Sony, and Rivian,” Liu says. “It was a very superior expertise to be engaged with such giant corporations and an enormous portfolio of merchandise, though we have been a small-scale operation simply doing regulatory electromagnetic compatibility and RF safety-type testing.”
In 2020 the corporate was acquired by Aspect, a London-based supplier of critical-materials testing, product qualification testing, inspection, and certification companies. New bosses meant a brand new tradition and a unique manner of working.
“Though the brand new administration was supportive and it was a very good expertise, I felt that I couldn’t spend the time and vitality I needed to on fixing issues, serving to prospects, or mentoring my workers,” Liu says. After 23 years, he left in 2023 to start out his personal firm, utilizing his private financial savings. Six of his colleagues joined his enterprise.
The RF Security Laboratory workforce in 2023 [from left]: Mark Biros (head of operations), Yue Li (take a look at engineer), Kaitlin O’Keefe (head of engineering), Steve Liu (president), a scholar intern, Burcu Derkunt (head of enterprise improvement), and Bich Nguyen (director of engineering)
RF Security Laboratory
How wi-fi tech will get assessed
To get licensed, new wi-fi merchandise are examined in opposition to established requirements comparable to IEEE 802.11 to make sure they meet necessities for efficiency and safety. When an organization develops a tool, it sends the expertise to an authorized test lab, the place technicians decide if the product is passable.
If the machine is licensed, the corporate can transfer ahead with manufacturing and distribution. If it doesn’t move muster, the corporate can cease engaged on it or repair the issue and resubmit the machine for certification.
When merchandise fail testing, corporations retain organizations comparable to RF Security Lab to determine what must be achieved to be licensed, Liu says.
Though the startup works with giant corporations together with Belkin, Rivian, and Sony, he says, most of its shoppers are new designers and small companies.
“A number of giant, tier-one corporations have already got the expertise obligatory to repair points discovered throughout regulatory testing, in order that they don’t encounter critical roadblocks until they’re creating a novel expertise,” he says. “However we’re seeing that quite a lot of new designers aren’t conscious of the laws, so they arrive to us for assist.
“Many instances they simply have to be educated on the laws and advised what paperwork they should provide to get their machine licensed,” he says, including that “there are instances the place we have to run our personal exams and assessments to find out how the product can adjust to laws.”
After the lab evaluates the product, it compiles a report with its findings together with suggestions on how you can treatment any failures. Corrective measures can embrace altering energy ranges, redesigning an antenna, and updating software program parameters to affect an antenna’s conduct.
Liu says that considered one of his most difficult tasks was a wi-fi endoscope developed by a bunch of medical doctors from Illinois. An endoscope is a skinny, versatile instrument with a digicam on the top, used to look contained in the human physique. Though small, it’s related through a wire to a monitor, which the surgeon can view through the process. And operating rooms have quite a few different machines with wires along with endoscopes.
The Illinois medical doctors needed to lower the variety of wires in working rooms, in order that they developed a wi-fi endoscope that makes use of a high-frequency 60-gigahertz RF transmitter, which shows high-resolution photos on a monitor.
“They constructed this attention-grabbing machine however didn’t know how you can get it licensed and the impression that testing may have on the ultimate design,” Liu says.
“Like many corporations, the designers have been resourceful and bought the transmitter elements at a low value from a producer abroad,” he says. “For a regulatory certification, you may have to have the ability to configure gadgets for sure testing functions, so the workforce and I needed to do a deep dive to seek out directions on how the transmitter labored and the way it was made.” He says it was significantly difficult as a result of the transmitter wasn’t the one off-the-shelf half the designers used.
Getting the machine prepared for certification required quite a lot of collaboration among the many designers, the various half producers, and regulatory businesses.
The method took a number of months to finish because of the product’s excessive frequency, which required preapproval steerage with the FCC.
“It was a really enjoyable expertise and a rewarding challenge for the workforce,” Liu says. “We had fun seeing that challenge by.”
RF Security Lab is increasing its attain and serving to corporations get their gadgets compliance-ready to be bought within the European Union. It is also engaged on getting merchandise to fulfill international cybersecurity laws.
From Your Website Articles
Associated Articles Across the Internet
1 Comment
Creative zen! Hailuo AI KungFu creates a perfect balance of technology and creativity.