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Newly Completed Anechoic Chamber Building Ready for Operation
A2LA, NVLAP, VCCI, FCC Certified Site According to ISO 17025

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Newly Completed Anechoic Chamber Building Ready for Operation

June 1, 2010

TDK Corporation has recently completed a dedicated anechoic chamber building within the grounds of the company's Technical Center in Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture. Construction was begun in October 2008, and the facility will start operations from June of this year.

The building assembles the largest arrangement of anechoic chambers of the TDK Group, both in Japan and overseas, under a single roof. It comprises three types of EMC anechoic chamber, namely a 10 meter method anechoic chamber and a 3 meter method anechoic chamber, as well as a microwave/millimeter wave anechoic chamber. In addition, there are four shielded rooms for simplified measurements, resulting in a total of seven rooms. This kind of centralized arrangement of multiple anechoic chambers and shielded rooms is rarely found anywhere in the world.

Anechoic chambers for EMC testing are used for evaluating a wide range of electronic components and products, including digital consumer equipment, information home appliances and automotive parts, with regard to electromagnetic emissions as well as immunity against electromagnetic interference. These evaluations are essential for devising measures aimed at limiting emissions that could pose the danger of electromagnetic interference with other systems and devices, as well as for immunity design, which aims at minimizing the risk of malfunction due to external influences. Together, these are referred to as EMC countermeasures.

EMC related standards are defined by the CISPR1 and IEC, and only such electronic components and devices that have passed the required certification tests can be marketed as commercial products. EMC anechoic chambers are becoming increasingly important as part of the evaluation and certification process.

An anechoic chamber employs special electromagnetic outer shielding to keep out external electromagnetic radiation. On the inside, radio absorptive material is used to cover the chamber walls, so that the electromagnetic waves from the device or component under test are not reflected by the shielding layer. The newly completed 10 meter method anechoic chamber was designed for utmost open site traceability and delivers extremely high performance that is unparalleled worldwide. The radio absorptive panels used for the chamber have a length of 250 centimeters which is twice that of conventional products.

Radio wave reflectivity has been reduced to as little as one tenth. The turntable and other ancillary parts of the chamber also are designed to provide optimum radio characteristics and performance. Built and executed with immaculate precision, this anechoic chamber delivers the top-notch performance that is required to ensure revised EMC standard compliance and to drive sophisticated EMC solutions for the future. From the start of operations, the new site is A2LA2 and NVLAP3 accredited as a laboratory compliant with the international ISO 17025 standard, and also a registered FCC4 and VCCI5 site.

Besides the new facility at the Technical Center, TDK operates anechoic chambers in Japan at the company's Akita plant in Nikaho, Akita Prefecture and at the Nagaoka Technical Center of TDK-Lambda, TDK's power supply group company. Overseas, there are EMC center facilities in the U.S. at Austin, Texas, at Seoul in South Korea, at Suzhou and Dongguan in China, at Negeri Sembilan in Malaysia, and at TDK-EPC in Regensburg, Germany. In total, the TDK Group therefore has nine facilities worldwide to respond to customers' needs and requirements in their respective areas of operation.

Besides the above facilities, TDK also has been providing construction services for anechoic chambers since 1969. To date, the company has a track record of about 500 sites in Japan and 500 sites in other countries, giving it the number one market share in this sector. Engineering operations for anechoic chambers will be pursued vigorously also in the future on a worldwide scale.

Features of the New Anechoic Chamber
  1. Three chamber types (10 meter method anechoic chamber, 3 meter method anechoic chamber, microwave/millimeter wave anechoic chamber) in a single building.
  2. Industry leading EMC anechoic chamber performance (site attenuation* characteristics: ±1.5 dB max. at 30 MHz to 1 GHz) for high precision measurements and evaluation.
    * Site attenuation: The degree by which radio waves between a transmitting and receiving antenna placed at specified distance at the measurement site are attenuated. The smaller the difference between the ideal site attenuation (theoretical value) and actual site attenuation (measured value), the higher the performance of the anechoic chamber.
  3. Top-level radio absorption characteristics realized by selecting materials with optimum characteristics from TDK's proprietary range of ferrite materials, and arranging quadrangular pyramid shaped absorbers and ferrite tiles in an optimized pattern.
Facility Overview
  1. Site: TDK Technical Center (2-15-7 Higashi-Owada, Ichikawa City, Chiba Prefecture)
  2. Building area: 1,802 m2
  3. Floor area: 2,736 m2
  4. Start of operations: From June 2010
  5. Facilities: As indicated below.
    Anechoic Chamber Name Main Measurement
    Subject Devices    		 Major measurement items
    10 meter method anechoic chamber Intelligent consumer electronics, information devices, and automobiles VCCI, FCC, CE mark
    3 meter method anechoic chamber Automotive electronics, etc. CISPR25, GM, FORD
    Microwave/millimeter wave anechoic chamber Various types of antennas CTIA6, OTA7
    Shielded room
    (four rooms total)    		 Various electronic devices, nearby magnetic field measurement  
Glossary
1. CISPR: Comit International Spcial des Perturbations Radiolectriques(International Special Committee on Radio Interference)
2. A2LA: The American Association for Laboratory Accreditation
3. NVLAP: National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program (calibration accreditation program established by NIST, the National Institute of Standards and Technology)
4. FCC: Federal Communications Commission
5. VCCI: Voluntary Control Council for Interference by Information Technology Equipment
6. CTIA: Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association
7. OTA: Over The Air. TDK performs performance evaluations of cellular phone connection quality (over-the-air connections and service provisioning).

For further information, contact Mr. Osuga in the Corporate Communications Dept.
Tel.: 81-3-6778-1055
E-mail: TDK.PR@tdk.com

For inquiries about anechoic chamber measurements
Akio Nakamura, General Manager
Application & Analysis Center
Technology Group
TDK Corporation
Tel.: 81-47-378-9483

For inquiries about anechoic chamber sales
Hisami Masuda, General Manager
EMC & RF Engineering Business Unit
Magnetics Business Group
TDK-EPC Corporation
Tel.: 81-47-378-9479