FCC Certification for Consumer Products

When you start planning a consumer product (or any hardware device), there are endless risks and unanswered questions. From design and engineering to production, supply chain, and marketing, there is a lot that needs to happen before launching to the market. One of these seemingly daunting requirements is FCC Certification, something every manufacturer of devices runs into at some point.

In This Article

1. What is FCC Certification?
2. A Typical FCC Certification Process
3. Why is FCC Certification Important
4. FCC Certification Costs & Lead Times

You can tell if a product has gone through some type of FCC certification by looking at it from the outside. It should have either an FCC ID (typically prefixed by “FCC ID:”) or the FCC logo on its product label clearly visible to the user.

The FCC rules require that any device that transmits or receives data wirelessly (or at high frequencies) and is sold in the United States go through a complex approval process. There are 2 main types of approvals: 1) FCC Certification and 2) Supplier’s Declaration of Conformity.

What is FCC Certification?

FCC certification is the process by which a company submits a product that uses wireless technology to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) of the United States for approval to sell it to the US market. The company must use a certified testing lab that tests, documents, and reports the product information to the FCC on the company’s behalf.

This process can also be called equipment authorization internally by the FCC. Equipment authorization encompasses FCC certification and other approval processes.

It is up to the manufacturer of the product to determine which approval process would be best for them as it depends heavily on its internal radio design and component selection.

Requirements for Consumer Electronics

Any hardware device in production to sell to the US market, regardless of whether it is intended for consumer or industrial use, needs to be FCC certified in some way. Consumer products have relatively straightforward FCC certification requirements detailed in Part 15 of the FCC Rules.

We can’t get into all the different rules and use cases, and the products that apply to them, that would take up way too much space for any sane person to digest.

However, we can say that for many consumer products, the type of radio (Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth) you use in your design impacts whether you can apply for the Supplier’s Declaration of Conformity (SDoC) or FCC Certification. Approval by SDoC is a much faster process.

Going for FCC approval via SDoC requires that the wireless module your product uses is pre-certified by the FCC, meaning it has already been tested for FCC Certification and has its own FCC ID.

FCC vs CE Certification

Certification by the United States FCC is much different than the CE self-certification process that a company must go through to legally sell in the European Union (EU) or United Kingdom (UK).

To legally sell a wireless device in the United States of America, a company only needs to get its product FCC certified or approved. CE certification is not required to sell in the United States, but it is probably the next step up for any company that wants to sell its device to both American and European markets.

CE certification for a consumer product is much more intensive and requires additional testing for Electrostatic Discharge, Product Safety, and Reliability.

A Typical FCC Certification Process

The FCC Certification process for most products can be outlined in 6 steps:

Phase 0: Project Initiation

Phase 1: Preliminary Lab Testing

Phase 2: Test Report Review & Debugging

Phase 3: Final Lab Testing

Phase 4: Document Preparation & Submission

Phase 5: FCC Approval

We will break down each step in the certification process in more detail below. Each phase is a joint collaboration effort between the Test Certification Body (TCB, aka test lab) and the device manufacturer.

Phase 0: Project Initiation

This is the opening phase where a manufacturer will approach a certified testing house and kick off an FCC certification approval project. In this phase, the TCB and manufacturer review all aspects of a product. Important topics like user-facing wireless features, internal circuitry, and radio design are discussed at length to make sure both parties agree on what needs to be tested for FCC review and certification.

Something to Note: It is best practice for a device manufacturer to go through an FCC pre-test prior to or around the project initiation phase. This lets the company find and fix any major design issues before sending units for real FCC testing at the TCB.

At the end of the project initiation, both the manufacturer and TCB should have an understanding of how the product works, the testing requirements, any software requirements needed, and the overall process required.

Phase 1: Preliminary Lab Testing

After project initiation, it's time for preliminary testing at the TCB. This is the first attempt at real FCC certification testing. The lab will test the device under test (DUT) for RF emissions and EMC at all the different frequency bands.

The lab will also put the device into a passthrough mode that allows a radio signal to be blasted through it. The lab techs will measure the results and make you aware of any frequency spikes or other types of failures.

During this lab testing, the engineers will be busy. Depending on where the manufacturer is located, it may make sense to send an engineer or two to be site during testing. This allows for real-time feedback which saves time during the next phase: debugging.

Phase 2: Review & Debugging

Depending on the TCB, debugging any test failures can happen during or after the preliminary test round. Ideally, any failures would have been caught already during pre-testing before the TCB had their hands on the unit. You never really know how the device will perform until the real test and environment.

Once preliminary testing is over, the lab will prepare a detailed report with all of the measured results from preliminary testing. The company supplying the device will review and make sure everything is in line with their specifications. Good engineers will want to see that there is some margin, but not too much, to the allowed emission levels as it affects wireless performance.

Phase 3: Final Testing

After the manufacturer and TCB confirm all preliminary tests are passing at acceptable levels, the lab will perform one last test to clean up any data and output a clean report that will be submitted to the FCC. The lab usually signs and stamps these final reports to make them official.

There shouldn’t be any surprises during this final test, as any rogue frequency spikes would have been caught previously. However, as with any electronic hardware product, electrical signal stability is not always a sure thing. Any failures found during this phase would send a company back to Phase 2 for more debugging before moving to the document submission phase.

Phase 4: Document Submission

With a signed, passing test report in hand, the worries may have gone away, but now the fun part begins.

Product documentation gathering.

The FCC rules outline the required documents needed for submission. Some different examples include:

RF Test Reports

Letters

Internal and external photos

Antenna datasheets

Block diagrams

Schematics

And more

If you were worried about giving away all your device's dark secrets, now is the time to cozy up to the TCB rep. We’re kidding.

Rest assured, the FCC has confidentiality procedures in place to keep some, but not all, of the documents and design IP out of public view.

The company and TCB rep will review all the product documentation to make sure it is acceptable, put it in a nice package, and they will be on their merry way toward an FCC certification product.

Phase 5: FCC Approval & Documentation

After your hardware has passed all required FCC tests and after you spent days gathering and updating its documentation, finally, you are ready to send everything off for FCC approval and certification.

Fun fact: The FCC actually outsources its device approvals. The body you send the submission to is a separate office certified by the FCC to review and approve certifications. Once a full product package is submitted, the approval can take a few weeks at least. There are ways to expedite using a consultant, but that costs significantly more.

Non-expedited approvals can take anywhere from 2-6 weeks depending on the approval body and their backlog of other products trying to get FCC certified. After this very long wait, the company will receive its FCC Certification declarations and be free to sell its product in the U.S.

Why is FCC Certification Important?

Everything has a radio in it at this point, why do I need to go through all these hoops to certify my product?

Well, yes, everything is a connected device these days, and that’s kind of the point. Also, it is the law in the U.S. It’s unfortunate that building and selling a device has some legality aspects to it, but they are for a good reason.

Wireless Interference with Life Safety Operations

The law was put in place to restrict devices from using or putting too much power into certain radio frequency bands. As radio is used by so many critical and important public entities (e.g. military, satellites, first responders, etc), it is vital to make sure not everyone can access those channels. If every consumer device was using the same frequencies as our military, our defense system would be in shambles.

International Trade

United States law requires wireless-enabled devices to signify that they are FCC approved (via certification or SDoC) prior to being marketed. This means that any manufacturer around the world needs to certify their device before selling it, really before even shipping it, to the American market. Until any laws are changed (unlikely), FCC certification will be a significant part of any manufacturer's product development process.

FCC Certification Costs & Lead Times

Unexpected costs and schedule delays can disrupt any business plan.

When developing and launching a new hardware product, the disruption can be even more significant because of the legality aspect of needing FCC certification prior to marketing or selling (aka making money).

Developing a new physical device is expensive enough, so we’re going to do our best to outline estimated costs and lead times for FCC certification so you can plan better. Reminder: the costs and lead times can vary quite a bit depending on whether you go for FCC Certification or apply under the SDoC. We will focus on FCC Certification.

Here is a typical cost and lead time breakdown for getting a new consumer product FCC Certified by a TCB:

These estimates assume your device passes all required tests and no significant changes are needed to the design before the final submission. Design changes and then required PCB updates and production can add weeks to these timelines.

We covered a lot about FCC certification in this article. Proper timeline and cost planning, electrical design, and testing execution are crucial to have a hand on during the certification process. The effort is worth it.