Regulatory And Compliance Standards For RF Devices

This document is an overview of the most important regulations used for RF approval from around the world.

Every device containing a radio sends out RF signals. To limit the signals, regulations are enforced by committees in various countries and regions around the world. The regulations state the maximum permitted radio parameters and regulate the use of frequencies. A product must be certified to ensure it complies with the regulations for the region where it will be sold.

The most important of these regulatory standards are:

• USA: The radio must be certified with the FCC.
• Canada: Industry Canada issues a certification certificate. It uses the same regulations as FCC.
• Europe: Self-certification by the manufacturer based on the R&TTE directive. All products must be CE marked. Harmonized standards from ETSI. Frequency allocation managed by CEPT/ERC rec 70-03.
• Japan: ARIB STD-T66.
• Australia/New Zealand: Self-certification managed by an ACMA auditing process. Uses the AS/NZS 4268:2003. All products must be C-TICK marked.

Depending on the application and product, a number of directives must be followed. This document covers only the RF part of these directives. In addition, there are regulations for electrical safety and so on.

This document discusses the most widespread regulations, with emphasis on the radios produced by Nordic Semiconductor.

The use of the ISB band is license free, but the regulations dictate certain limitations on output power, frequency, duty cycle and, application.