The Technical Testing and Analysis Center (TTAC) offers testing of radiological, environmental, and electromagnetic compatibility, and mechanical environments to ensure equipment meets application needs.
TTAC staff set standards-based testing protocols and characterize field environments to establish the technical basis of requirements in radiation environments. Protocol validation testing verifies that requirements can be met in a reasonable amount of time. Testing through TTAC ensures radiological and environmental vulnerabilities and operational limitations are understood and either eliminated or mitigated prior to fielding a device. TTAC can also perform comparisons of commercial-off-the-shelf equipment capabilities, vulnerabilities, and limitations prior to procurement.
Research Application
TTAC’s capabilities benefit research efforts and prototypes expected to be exposed to environmental, mechanical, radiological, or electromagnetic stressors such as high heat and humidity, extreme cold, mechanical impact, gamma radiation, and radio-frequency (RF) interference. TTAC can identify susceptibility to these effects in products applicable to many research areas, including electrical systems and electronics, building technologies, and transportation.
Capabilities
TTAC has a broad range of capabilities for simulating the following environmental conditions that can span 24-hour cycles, if necessary:
Temperature
Humidity
Air pressure (altitude)
Dust
Moisture
Magnetic fields
RF immunity
RF emissions
Line noise
Voltage variation
Vibration
Shock
TTAC has a full-time staff of engineers and technologists with over 25 years of combined experience. Our staff is active in standards development, including contributions to International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) standards. Additional experts are available when needed.
Accreditation
TTAC is accredited by the National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program (NVLAP) to the ANSI/IEEE N42 Homeland Security Standards in the radiological, mechanical, environmental, and electromagnetic areas as well as to IEC radiation protection instrumentation standards. The TTAC scope of accreditation, NVLAP Lab Code 200861-0, is available on request or through NIST.
