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I have been tasked by my current employer to look into the costs of self certifying. With past companies I have worked for, all of the tests were at a 3rd party lab. The closest thing I have seen to self certifying is when I worked at a company that had a makeshift anechoic chamber layered with copper tape. This was more to get a sense of the radiation coming from the unit. And to redesign if it was obviously high levels.

I have done a lot of searching and I can't seem to find a good guide or others that self certify for emissions. Has anybody gone through the process of self certifying? If so, where did you learn what kind of equipment to purchase and the procedure? My gut tells me it probably isn't worth self certifying but I have to do my due diligence in researching this possibility for my employer.

These links were useful to get my feet wet on the topic but I could not find a great lead:

How to find out which certificates (FCC, CE etc.) are necessary for a product?

How do you determine whether your product requires CE marking?

FCC and CE Testing / Failure Resolution (most helpful)

Certifications and requirements

The products to be certified are small benchtop units and are unintentional radiators. In my mind, I just need an anechoic chamber (probably not a large one), a calibrated spectrum analyzer (expensive but we would rent it), and a receiving antennae. But again, not an expert here. Just trying to understand the self certifying process.

joe
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    I believe that self certification is called "supplier declaration of conformity" by the FCC. See CFR Title 47, Chapter 1, Subchapter A, Part 2, Subpart J 2.906. You should also look at part 15 of Subchapter A, figure out which sections are relevant and read them. There may be references to other parts that you may need to read. –  Aug 12 '19 at 16:14

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There are two ways to file for an unintentional radiator, with an SDoC or through an accredited laboratory.

For equipment authorized using the SDoC procedure, it is not necessary to perform the testing at an FCC-recognized accredited testing laboratory (although the responsible party may use an accredited testing laboratory if it wishes to do so). The testing laboratory that is used must maintain a description of the test facility, as required by Section 2.948(b). The description of the test facility does not need to be submitted to the FCC, unless requested. Test reports must be signed by a representative of the responsible party with the authority to act on behalf of the responsible party. It is not necessary for the representative that signs the test report to be located in the United States.
Source: https://apps.fcc.gov/oetcf/kdb/forms/FTSSearchResultPage.cfm?id=203240&switch=P

The SDoC needs to conform with ANSI C63.4. So the methods to test and the requirements to setup your lab are contained in ANSI C63.4 (which is paywalled).

If you want to make your lab accredited, the information to do so is listed here.

If your only doing this for one product, there are labs that will help you get an SDoC for under 1k$, which it might not be worth your time if only doing this for a few products.

Voltage Spike
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  • When you say "If you want to make your lab accredited", I thought this was a requirement if the responsible party wants to self certify. And I just got off the phone with a company who sells anechoic chambers with equipment for such testing. They informed me that standards are paywalled. I guess this is referring to the ANSI C63.4 you are referring to. – joe Aug 12 '19 at 18:18
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    Yep, you'll have to buy the standard. You don't have to make your lab accredited if you SDoC, but you will have to test to ANSI C63.4. – Voltage Spike Aug 12 '19 at 18:40
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    "there are labs that will help you get an SDoC for under 1k$": Which one do you suggest? – Brethlosze Aug 13 '19 at 00:52
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    We still get the full FCC testing done because the managers are very conservative. The argument is if you screw up the testing they can put all of your products on hold in the EU (or so the story goes) I keep arguing for SDoC because it's cheaper. I've shown a few quotes to people, but I can't say I'd recommend a lab – Voltage Spike Aug 13 '19 at 01:09