Electro Magnetic Interference (EMI) is a natural byproduct of all aviation anti-collision strobe systems, both old and new. It is created and radiated when strobe systems suddenly turn electricity into light pulses, and sometimes can be detected in intercoms and communication radios as audio noise every time the strobes activate.
Aveo Engineering designs and builds extremely quiet LED strobe systems, as evidenced by our beacons and wingtip units. So much so that Aveo products are widely used in military UAVs, where low EMI is an absolute requirement. Anything that could interfere with operational telemetry is simply not tolerated.
In aviation, there is no such thing as good EMI, no matter how small. Aveo has taken the extra step to create the Spike-D series of in line EMI filters. These small, inexpensive units are extremely effective in greatly attenuating residual EMI found in avionics installations.
These spectrum analyzer photos below, show just effective the Spike-D filters are. (Frequency range depicted is 300kHz – 2MHz, which corresponds to DO-160 Chapter 21, Emission of Radio Frequency Energy.)
The yellow traces depict normal radio frequency background noise.
The blue traces depict EMI without Spike-D.
The red traces depict EMI with Spike-D.