Wi-fi expertise, reminiscent of cellphones, health trackers, and medical gadgets, has develop into ubiquitous. Earlier than a wi-fi machine is manufactured and bought, its expertise is examined by compliance engineering laboratories to make sure it adheres to technical requirements established by organizations together with the IEEE Requirements Affiliation.
Within the United States, the Federal Communications Fee oversees rules for all wi-fi gadgets, whereas the Meals and Drug Administration focuses on medical expertise. The 2 organizations usually 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 Security Laboratory in 2023. The startup, based mostly in Catonsville, Md., focuses on particular absorption charge (SAR) testing, nerve stimulation testing, and measuring energy density ranges of charging docks, surgical instruments, tablets, and different merchandise. SAR testing measures the quantity of RF power absorbed by the human physique from a wi-fi machine. Nerve stimulation and energy density assessments measure the instantaneous results on an individual’s nervous system.
Liu says most of the lab’s shoppers, who’re based mostly in Japan, South Korea, and the USA, need to promote their merchandise in Canada and the USA, which have the strictest, most troublesome rules 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 accessible on the FCC web site,” Liu says.
Many product builders don’t understand that when integrating Wi-Fi or 5G into a tool, they should embrace shielding towards 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 understand they will’t simply make a tool after which count on to have the ability to export it to North America,” he says. “Most of the time, 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 rules, the corporate can face important fines and authorized actions, and the machine might be recalled.
From testing engineer to startup founder
Liu is not any stranger to technical requirements and rules. After graduating with a bachelor’s diploma in biomedical and electrical engineering in 2000 from Johns Hopkins College, in Baltimore, he joined PCTest Engineering Laboratory, in Columbia, Md. The corporate, now a part of Aspect, was created to supply regulatory and testing providers 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 Physique, which assesses tools. He labored his means up the profession ladder and, in 2018, was promoted to vice president of engineering, overseeing world 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 extremely superior expertise to be engaged with such massive corporations and an enormous portfolio of merchandise, though we had 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 providers. New bosses meant a brand new tradition and a distinct means 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 power I needed to on fixing issues, serving to clients, or mentoring my staff,” Liu says. After 23 years, he left in 2023 to begin his personal firm, utilizing a few of his retirement financial savings. Six of his colleagues joined his enterprise.
The RF Security Laboratory staff in 2023 [from left]: Mark Biros (head of operations), Phuong Nguyen (technical supervisor), Kaitlin O’Keefe (head of engineering), Steve Liu (president), former worker, Burcu Derkunt (head of enterprise growth), 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 towards established requirements reminiscent of 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 approved check 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 go 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 reminiscent of RF Security Lab to determine out what needs to be completed to be licensed, Liu says.
Though the startup works with massive corporations together with Belkin, Google, and Sony, he says, most of its shoppers are new designers and small companies.
“Plenty of massive, tier-one corporations have already got the expertise essential to repair points discovered throughout regulatory testing, in order that they don’t encounter critical roadblocks until they’re growing a novel expertise,” he says. “However we’re seeing that a whole lot of new designers aren’t conscious of the rules, so they arrive to us for assist.
“Many instances they simply should be educated on the rules and advised what paperwork they should provide to get their machine licensed,” he says, including that “there are circumstances the place we have to run our personal assessments and assessments to find out how the product can adjust to rules.”
After the lab evaluates the product, it compiles a report with its findings together with suggestions on easy methods to 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 one in all his most difficult initiatives was a wi-fi endoscope developed by a gaggle of medical doctors from Illinois. An endoscope is a skinny, versatile instrument with a digital camera on the top, used to look contained in the human physique. Though small, it’s linked through a wire to a monitor, which the surgeon can view in the course of the process. And working 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 pictures on a monitor.
“They constructed this fascinating machine however didn’t know easy methods to get it licensed and the affect that testing might have on the ultimate design,” Liu says.
“Like many corporations, the designers had been resourceful and bought the transmitter components at a low price from a producer abroad,” he says. “For a regulatory certification, you’ve to have the ability to configure gadgets for sure testing functions, so the staff 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 notably 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 a whole lot of collaboration among the many designers, the various half producers, and regulatory companies.
The method took a number of months to finish as a result of product’s excessive frequency, which required preapproval steering with the FCC.
“It was a really enjoyable expertise and a rewarding challenge for the staff,” Liu says. “We had fun seeing that challenge by way of.”
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 satisfy world cybersecurity rules.
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