RFI and EMI testing

[frazierjason]

Some diagnostic hospital equipment (especially imaging) is especially susceptible to radio frequency interference. Brushless motors are known to create AM noise, and some inexpensive power supplies also emit quite a lot of RFI. I'm not skilled enough to propose exact solutions, but it seems typical remedies are often a capacitor here, an added ground there, and some ferrites chokes to eliminate common mode current. This device should be tested for excessive RFI to ensure many of them can get along with other equipment in hospital wards.

There are also EMI considerations for Arduino boards. This linked article explains some challenges in Arduino controllers hanging during specific EMI generating events, and some general suggestions to help.
https://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=199671.0

If one of these devices becomes available in the Seattle area, I have software defined ham radio equipment and a small Faraday cage at work to observe a device in the 30kHz-77MHz range, and I know friends with access to larger cages as well as more specific equipment such as spectrum analyzers. I also have a solder workstation and a fair bit of surface mount experience.

A requirement definition would be needed: the RFI thresholds that hospital devices must not exceed, across the usable frequency spectrum. If this device can't be completely RFI-quiet, the effort should be focused on which frequency ranges are most sensitive to other life-saving equipment this device might encounter as it is wheeled with a patient through (I guess to be mainly ICU and medical imaging environments?).