Innovative test method for the shielding effectiveness measurement of conductive thin films in a wide frequency range

This paper presents an innovative test procedure for the prediction of the shielding effectiveness of small sample materials, consisting of a dielectric substrate coated with thin conducting film, in a wide frequency range up to 8 GHz. The proposed technique overcomes the limitations of the ASTM D4935 test method concerning the upper operating frequency and the required minimum specimen dimensions. A new high-order equivalent circuit model of the test fixture is developed. A correction factor is applied to the measured insertion loss to eliminate both the resonance peak below cutoff appearing in the high-frequency range and the low-frequency errors due to the weak capacitive coupling between the flanges of the coaxial cell. The accurate prediction of the shielding effectiveness of the test material against a plane wave is then derived from the insertion loss measurements.