Introduction to EMC for Functional Safety

Most safety regulations and standards concentrate their efforts on intrinsic safety – the possibility that injury or damage could occur due to electric shock, fire, mechanical instability, sharp edges, etc. In this paper we are concerned with functional safety – where the hazards and risks depend upon the correct operation of devices, equipment, systems or installations. IEC 61508 [3] is the basic standard covering the functional safety requirements of complex electrical, electronic, or programmable electronic equipment, and requires a quantified risk assessment approach. A number of sectorspecific functional safety standards are being developed, based on [3].