Infotainment System Immunity Characterization Via Bulk Current Injection

The proliferation of entertainment and communication systems in vehicles has led to increased concern as to the performance of these systems in an electromagnetic environment. One methodology used to assess radiated immunity performance on a component level is bulk current injection (BCI). In BCI a current probe is used to inject lower frequency radio waves (RF) onto the harness of an automotive device under test. This is an indirect methodology given that on a vehicle level a direct radiated field is impinged on the vehicle rather than a coupled current such as in BCI. Because of that, important considerations need to be taken into account to replicate the vehicle coupling phenomena on a component test. This paper examines setup issues and assesses the effectiveness of the BCI methodology for immunity testing of infotainment systems.