Date of Award

Winter 2006

Project Type

Thesis

Program or Major

Electrical Engineering

Degree Name

Master of Science

First Advisor

Kent Chamberlin

Abstract

Interference generated by electronic equipment inside a vehicle can interfere with radio reception even though that equipment is in compliance with FCC standards. The result of that interference is an undesired reduction in radio coverage at frequencies where the interference exists.

The contribution of this work is a method for measuring electromagnetic interference (EMI) generated by in-vehicle electronic equipment when external radiation is present. The approach is to identify regions in the spectrum where externally generated signals exist and then to bypass those regions when measuring interference from in-vehicle-equipment. Using the FCC database of licensed radiation sources to identify those regions will not achieve the desired goal. An analysis of the received spectrum is used to assess the presence of signals. Trade-offs between measurement accuracy and the time to perform the measurements are given, along with information on measurement repeatability.

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