Michihisa Yamazaki

Founding Member, William Henry Merrill Society

In August 1980, Michihisa Yamazaki co-founded A-Pex International in Japan to provide application agent services for product safety certification. Over the next 23 years, he helped to build the company into Japan's leading provider of electromagnetic compatibility evaluation and application agent services.

Under Mr. Yamazaki's leadership, A-Pex started its EMC operation in November 1992, marketing a one-stop, bundled service for EMC and product safety certification needs. In the 13 years since its inception, the A-Pex EMC operation has grown to become Japan's largest. Mr. Yamazaki joined UL in 2003 when A-Pex International and UL Japan merged to form UL Apex Company Ltd.

Mr. Yamazaki's milestone accomplishments include the following activities:

Working with a researcher at NIST, A-Pex studied the use of reverberating chambers, which generate a strong electric field, for EMC testing. A-Pex eventually opened Japan's first reverberating chamber testing site, offering services to clients in the automotive sector.

Responding to changes and revisions of the European Automotive Directive, Mr. Yamazaki's EMS group upgraded its service capabilities for registration with the Vehicle Certification Agency in the U.K., Lux Control in Luxemburg and AIB in Belgium.

Mr. Yamazaki also has designed wireless testing services to expand the EMC service portfolio as promising new wireless technological devices have emerged. As part of this effort, he has worked closely with regulatory authorities in various countries, registering UL Apex testing sites to aid conformity with each new wireless standard. To date he has fostered communication with wireless control authorities in more than 80 countries for conducting EMC services.

He implemented certification services for conformance with wireless LAN and Bluetooth standards using short-range wireless technology. In addition, he led the development of SAR testing to evaluate the effect of electromagnetic waves on human body.

Mr. Yamazaki was active as a standards development panel member on the Electric Magnetic Information Security Committee, and the ECONET Committee.

Mr. Yamazaki retired from UL Apex Company Ltd. in June 2007.