The EMC Shop stocks transient generators for most compliance standards, industries and products under test.
Transient generators are electronic machines that generate an electrical event or phenomena, such as a lightning strike or a sag in power. They are connected into the power and data ports of the latest greatest electronic product and exposed to the electrical “transients” to evaluate how a product will respond. Common failures will be that the product's internal power supply will burn up and possibly damage additional electronics down the line.
Engineering groups captured common transients and developed the test standards that specify the electrical waveform and characteristics of those events. Occasionally, products will pass these standards but still have failures in the real world. It may take some time to circle back to these transient tests, but people will measure unique transients in the wild and have to develop a clever solution to resolve it. Most transient generators allow for some manipulation of the electrical events but duplicating every event found isn’t possible.
Transient generators are designed according to test standards set out by commitees of electrical engineers. Manufacturers take the schematic and start assembling. The quality of the high voltage and current components are important, as is insulating the components and protecting them from internal arcing and allowing maximum performance. The desired outcome - a consistent electrical output from discharge to discharge.
Transient generators will be used interchangeably with the term pulse generator in some military and aerospace test standards. Although, pulsing can be done over the air and in other formats.