The barrier for Filipino electronic products has been lowered.
The United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has recognized the testing capabilities of the Electronics Product Development Center (EPDC) of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).
The FCC nod paves the way for the expansion of the country’s electronics testing market to the United States and other countries.
Opened in July 2015, EPDC is a world-class electronics testing facility designed to support the electronics industry by providing technical support services to promote innovation and high value product development.
EPDC is capable, for example, of printed circuit board (PCB) design, prototyping and testing. It is in the process of expanding its prototyping capability to include a PCB wet process lab.
The FCC recognition will help EPDC’s testing capabilities go beyond electronics production and will drive original design and development activities in the Philippines as well.
The facility can now cater to the bigger market of manufacturing and assembly of electronic products.
The FCC informed EPDC that it recognizes the ISO 17025 accreditation the local facility obtained from the American Association for Laboratory Accreditation.
The recognition allows EPDC to perform compliance testing on equipment subject to conformity with FCC’s certification rules.
The ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation demonstrates technical competence for a defined scope and the operation of a laboratory quality management system.
It facilitates cooperation between laboratories by generating wider acceptance of results between countries.
Test reports and certificates can be accepted from one country to another without the need for further testing and encourages international trade.
“We are very happy with this development as it opens up the EPDC to foreign clients of its testing services,” said Peter Banzon, chief science research specialist at DOST’s Advanced Science and Technology Institute (ASTI).
“More importantly, it opens up and lowers the barriers for local companies and innovators to enter the US market with our very own innovative products,” said Banzon, ASTI’s project leader for EPDC.
EPDC is managed by ASTI and the Electronics Industries Association of the Philippines (EIAPI) which promotes locally developed electronics products.
ASTI is focused on the advanced fields of information and communication technology, computing, electronics and their applications.
“Expensive tests that used to be performed abroad can now be done much faster and more economically here in the Philippines,” said Banzon.
