Updates to Standard and Requirements for Information Technology Equipment

The Department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) of Canada will be updating Interference-Causing Equipment Standard ICES-003 later this year.

Interference Causing Equipment Standard (ICES) sets out limits and methods of measurement of radio frequency emissions, as well as administrative requirements, for information technology equipment (ITE), including digital apparatus.

This includes devices or systems that generate and/or use timing signals or pulses having a rate of at least 9 kHz and employ digital techniques for purposes such as computation, display, control, data processing and storage.

All products subject to this standard that continue to be manufactured, imported, distributed, leased, offered for sale, or sold in Canada shall comply with ICES-003 Issue 7 later this year.

Listed below are the changes:

  • Title of the standard changed from “Information Technology Equipment (Including Digital Apparatus) – Limits and Methods of Measurement” to “Information Technology Equipment (including Digital Apparatus)”;
  • Added requirements for devices with wireless power transfer functionality (section 1.3);
  • Removed requirements that are specified in ICES-Gen and referred to ICES-Gen for all general requirements (section 2.2);
  • Removed the alternative limits (ICES-003 now has only one set of limits), while continuing to allow either the CISPR or ANSI test methods (section 3).

Issue 6 was published in January 2016 and updated in April 2017, and in April 2019. The new issue of the ICES-003 standard will come into force upon its publication on the Innovation, Science, and Economic Development Canada (ISED) website.

A transition period of one year, ending on the 1st of August, 2021, is provided, within which compliance with either ICES-003 Issue 6 or ICES-003 Issue 7 is accepted.

In addition to this standard, the requirements of ICES-Gen, General Requirements for Compliance of Interference-Causing Equipment, shall apply, except where a requirement in ICES-Gen contradicts a requirement in this standard, in which case this standard shall take precedence.

For the previous issue of this standard, please refer to this link ICES-003, Issue 6

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