Leading global safety science company, UL, has opened a new Silicon Valley EMC (electromagnetic compatibility) and wireless testing laboratory located at its California – Fremont facility. Representing one of the largest EMC testing footprints in North America, the facility addresses the growing demand for EMC and wireless testing and certification services and offers start-ups, scaling businesses and large corporations state-of-the art technology and a comprehensive service solution, including certifications for global market access, all under one roof.
According to Ghislain Devouge, Global Vice President and General Manager of Consumer Technology at UL, the company applies science and objective authority to help engineers and entrepreneurs solve critical challenges by helping them develop and market safer products and innovations. The expanded facility equips it to better support Silicon Valley companies and to fast-track their project fulfillment —allowing them ultimately to quickly grow and thrive.
The multi-million-dollar expansion adds a 39,000-square-foot building to the existing campus. The facility's footprint now spans a total of 178,900 square feet, allowing UL to service a more diverse range of products for customers across the automotive, medical, industrial products, lighting, appliance and IoT sectors. This new breadth of capability is in addition to the current consumer technology, information technology equipment and mobile and telecommunications segments that UL currently services.
Now employing more than 300 UL team members, the expanded facility offers significant testing capacity and capability, automated data collection, custom designed test chambers and immediate access to technical experts across a multitude of disciplines. The addition of a 10-meter semi-anechoic chamber to the Fremont location provides convenience and capability for design engineers and product developers in the local area to work with UL as a partner throughout every step of the process of getting to market, from sending prototypes, to witnessing testing and getting real-time reports, and addressing compliance issues before production.
UL's Fremont campus specializes in helping manufacturers prepare their product for testing and understanding and meeting the necessary regulatory requirements for EMC and wireless, radio performance, radio frequency (RF) exposure and safety, including 5G. This expanded testing capacity allows UL to offer customers immediate access to technical experts across multiple EMC and wireless disciplines with in-depth industry knowledge, while also leveraging the latest equipment to optimize test processes across an increased scope. When regulations change, manufacturers may have to conduct new testing even if their products are already in the market. Additionally, manufacturers who add wireless capability to existing products for IoT and medical applications also have to meet the complex and varied wireless regulatory requirements in their intended markets.
The new facility is less than a mile from the current laboratory, which is located at 47173 Benicia Street in Fremont; combined, the campus now includes 16 specific absorption rate (SAR) systems, 10 3-meter chambers, two 5-meter chambers and a state-of-the-art 10-meter chamber, empowering clients to go to market in compliance, on time and in a cost-effective manner.
This significant expansion with additional EMC, wireless and SAR capacity, complements the current campus in Fremont which already encompasses product safety, optical radiation/laser testing, wireless protocol, interoperability, quality and a two-story house dubbed the "Living Lab" where manufacturers can test devices to ensure they are interoperable and can communicate with other connected products in a centralized real-world environment.
