A ripple is a disturbance signal that is superimposed on the DC power supply. This ripple comes, for example, from periodic switching operations of semiconductor components. In electric vehicles the electric drive system, especially the inverter part, represents the greatest potential source of ripple-voltages.

The ripple immunity test is required by international standards such as ISO 21498-2 and ISO 7637-4 or manufacturer standards such as MBN 11123, VW 80300 and PSA B21 7712, and is becoming increasingly important due to the constantly developing automotive industry. The ripple test is carried out on different E-vehicle components, which partly requires powerful test equipment due to the normative requirements and the component characteristics.

In the following, the origin and dangers of ripple, requirements on test equipment, normative requirements and the solution from AMETEK CTS are discussed.

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