What is compliance in electronics design?

The road that you need to travel to turn an idea into a practically viable product that’s ready to be sold is a long one. From prototyping to advanced market research, each step will take you closer to your end goal.

One incredibly important step is ensuring that your electronic product is compliant with the relevant regulations in each country you intend on selling it in. Here, we take a closer look at compliance in electronics design, to help you ensure that your product doesn’t get knocked down at the last hurdle.

The two main markets in the West - Europe and the United States - each have their own set of regulatory frameworks that need to be navigated during compliance testing. 

In the United States, these include the Federal Communication Commission (FCC), the Underwriters Laboratory (UL) and other Nationally Recognised Testing Laboratories (NRTLs). 

In the European Union, the main compliance framework falls under the Comfortmité Européenne (CE).

The most efficient and cost effective way of ensuring compliance is by factoring it into the design process. Designing your electronic product in collaboration with a compliance expert ensures that compliance is built in during the process itself, rather than as an afterthought.

This is by far the most effective way of meeting the regulatory requirements in each market. Treating compliance as an afterthought can mean that the whole product needs to be redesigned, setting the process back by months or years.

There is a wide variety of different variables that need testing, depending on both the product and the market it’s being sold in. Details that need testing include:

In addition to national and regional regulations, there are also international product testing requirements that need to be met. These include those set out by the Radio Equipment Directive and by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). 

It’s crucial that whichever entity carries out compliance testing is familiar with all of the regulatory requirements associated with your product and market goals, to ensure that you aren’t held back unexpectedly at any stage in the process.

Generally, it’s necessary to outsource your compliance testing to a manufacturing expert such as BitBox. Not only does compliance testing require intimate knowledge of the various regulatory frameworks associated with different global markets, but it also requires access to a lot of complex machinery in order to carry out various tests.

Often, it’s a good idea to identify a manufacturer who is qualified to carry out both your prototyping and certification processes. That way, they’ll already be familiar with the product by the time it comes to compliance testing, and they can help you to design it with compliance in mind, avoiding unnecessary last-minute complications and setbacks.