Investigating electromagnetic exposure of communication cables in reverberant chambers

As distributed electronic systems become more complex, the electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) behaviour of the communication cables becomes more significant. Hence a range of test methods must be developed that will provide an adequate measure of the cable's interference susceptibility. One such method is the 'mode stirred reverberation chamber method', which offers a complementary technique to the more common and widespread surface transfer impedance measurement techniques. In the reverberation chamber method, the cable under test is subjected to a statistically uniform field produced by the rotation of a metallic 'mode stirrer'. This paper investigates the effects of the stirrer rotation on the surface currents on a cable using both modelling and measurements. The high level of agreement between the modelled and measured data supports the use of the reverberation chamber technique for screening performance measurements of communication cables.