Review of Circuit Approach to Calculate Shielding Effectiveness

The shielding effectiveness of an enclosure at low frequencies can be readily computed using a circuit approach. Not only does this technique include the effects of the properties of the shield material, but it also includes the details of the geometry of the enclosure. Furthermore, this approach allows a nonempirical consideration of mesh enclosures and the effects of resistive seams in enclosure walls. By working with the circuit analogue, penetration by transient fields can also be computed. Essentially the enclosure is viewed as an antenna. In the case of magnetic shielding effectiveness, the enclosure is viewed as a short circuited loop antenna. In the case of electric field penetration, the enclosure is viewed as a fat electric dipole. Using this characterization and exact solutions where available, the current distribution on the outside of the enclosure is first determined. Then, based on the current distribution, the penetrating fields are computed. The equations are developed in such a way as to preserve a lumped circuit analogue for the low-frequency region. The basic circuit equations for magnetic field penetration are rederived from a rigorous solution. Rules to estimate the rise-time, fall-time, and peak magnitudes of transient penetrating fields are developed. The electric shielding effectiveness is developed in a similar manner. In both cases the results of the circuit approach agree well with those based on rigorous solutions of the electromagnetic boundary conditions. The results also agree with published experimental data on both large and small enclosures.     

Use of Reverberation Chambers to Determine the Shielding Effectiveness of Physically Small, Electrically Large Enclosures and Cavities

With the proliferation of small electric devices in recent years, along with various other applications, there is a growing need to test and determine the shielding properties or shielding effectiveness (SE) of physically small (but electrically large) enclosures or cavities. In this paper, we discuss how a reverberation chamber technique can be used to measure the SE of such enclosures. The approach consists of placing the small enclosure inside a reverberation chamber and using frequency stirring to excite the reverberation chamber. A small surface probe (i.e., a monopole) is mounted on the inside wall of the small enclosure to measure the power level inside the small enclosure. We present measured data from various other reverberation chamber approaches obtained from various enclosure configurations. The data from these other reverberation chamber approaches are used to validate the proposed approach. We also compared measured data to theoretical calculations of the SE for two small enclosures with circular apertures. These various comparisons illustrate that the proposed technique is a valid approach for determining the SE of physically small (i.e., cubic enclosure dimensions of the order of 0.1 m and smaller), but electrically large enclosures (that support several modes at the lowest frequency of interest).      

Low-Frequency Shielding Effectiveness of Nonuniform Enclosures

This paper presents a quasi-static approximate solution to the magnetic shielding of several nonuniform enclosures using the integral form of Maxwell's equations and insight gained from other approaches. The solution is called quasi-static as the assumptions made are from physical arguments based on low-frequency cases where the enclosure size is much less than a wavelength. The integral form of Maxwell's equations is used to obtain a first order correction to the static solution to obtain induced currents in the time-varying case. A cylindrical shell immersed in an axial magnetic field is used to illustrate the method, which is then extended to derive a formula for a similarly excited rectangular enclosure. These shields are seen to behave like a low-pass filter. Although the enclosure dimensions are small compared to the wavelength, the skin depth effects in the walls cannot be neglected even for relatively thin material as usually encountered in an enclosure. These skin effects are included in the analysis and experimental checks performed on a variety of enclosure sizes and materials, excited by a Helmholtz coil show agreement within two decibels over the 4-octave frequency range examined. No one can say whether this method offers a better solution to the shielding problem, as all solutions are approximate, but the author attempts to present an alternative formulation that aids in understanding the physical processes involved in the shielding effectiveness of an enclosure and fills some of the gaps between the plane-wave analysis and circuit approaches presently used.     

New Technique for the Determination of the Integrity of Shielded Enclosures by the Measurement of the Perpendicular Magnetic Field

A solution of electromagnetic field equations with appropriate boundary conditions shows that at the surface of a material with infinite conductivity, no parallel electric field or perpendicular magnetic field exists. As conductivity decreases, there are large relative increases in the parallel electric field and perpendicular magnetic field at the surface. A reduction in permeability lowers the parallel electric field while increasing the perpendicular magnetic field. For most practical shielded enclosures of room size, the shielding effectiveness is determined largely by the quality of the seams between panels, along door edges, or filter mountings. Hence an investigation is presented of results of an evaluation of a method developed by the government for finding faults in a shielded enclosure by detecting changes in the perpendicular component of magnetic field along the surface of the conducting wall emphasizing continuity of all types of seams of shielded enclosures.     

Corrosion of a zinc-coated steel enclosure at the contactinterfaces of gasket joints

A typical enclosure for information technology (IT) equipment is made of various sub-assemblies such as enclosure cases, gaskets and I/O connectors, and the shielding effectiveness of the enclosure is largely determined by junctions in the enclosure for electrically connecting different shielding panels or components. Inter-metallic junctions may get corroded and the shielding effectiveness of the enclosure may deteriorate. The identification of the corrosion mechanisms responsible for the shielding degradation of zinc-coated steel enclosures is the primary focus of this study. A series of preliminary experimental investigations were conducted to help in identifying the corrosion mechanisms. Factors contributing to the corrosion process are discussed. This work provides a basis for on-going effort in experimentally quantifying and modeling the corrosion and corrosion-induced shielding-degradation behavior of electromagnetic shielding enclosures     

Diffusive electromagnetic penetration into metallic-enclosures

The physics of shielding by a metallic enclosure is discussed. Simple engineering formulas in the frequency and time domains are deduced from a rigorous formulation to calculate the cavity fields for certain canonical enclosure shapes. These simple formulas are generalized so as to be applicable to enclosures of arbitrary shape. The great difference in shielding effectiveness between enclosures and planar slabs is pointed out.     

高频有损斜开孔腔体屏蔽效能研究

针对带孔屏蔽腔体工作时受复杂电磁干扰问题,基于电磁拓扑理论和BLT 方程,考虑开孔倾斜、偏 心、任意平面波照射、任意观测点位置等情况,提出用于计算斜开孔腔体屏蔽效能的解析模型。同时将腔体材料考 虑为有损导体,对BLT 方程中散射矩阵和传播矩阵进行修改;并利用电压和电场分布关系,考虑腔体内多种传播模 式,将模型的可计算频段拓展为0~3 GHz。最后,设计五组试验,对比CST 仿真值、Robinson 拓展算法计算值与文中 所提模型计算值,验证所提模型的准确性与优化性。为实际工程中孔缝腔体屏蔽问题的预测与计算提供方法。     

New figures of merit for the characterization of the performance of shielding enclosures

Evaluation and measurement of shielding performance of enclosures and protection structures in general are based on the comparison between the local field values with and without the shield. Apart from some practical problems arising in specific, but relevant, situations like enclosures of small dimensions, such an approach appears rather incomplete and sometime deceitful. Despite this, shielding effectiveness (SE) is a well-established parameter, and it seems that for decades, the attention has been focussed more on how to evaluate and measure the so-called SE, rather on what the goal of any shielding structure is and why each evaluation and measurement should be performed. The main drawback is that SE is a local quantity and its knowledge does not help in the prediction of the real mitigation of undesired effects achieved by means of any shielding structure; undesired effects are mainly due to an integral of an electric or magnetic field, and/or to spatial variations of electric and magnetic field components. In the past, proposals were advanced toward an improved definition and measurement of electromagnetic SE; the proposed new figures of merit were based on the energy (power) penetrating the enclosure, perceived as the key factor for the shielding problem. However, it seems more adequate and correct the direct reference to the mechanism of birth of induced effects, as stemming from Maxwell equations. For these reasons, two new figures of merit are proposed for the comparison of enclosures and shields performance.     

FDTD modeling of common-mode radiation from cables

Radiation from cables attached to printed circuit boards and shielding enclosures is among the primary concerns in meeting FCC Class A and B limits. The finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method can be employed to model radiation from printed circuit boards and shielding enclosures with complex geometries, but difficulties in modeling wires and cables of arbitrary radii are encountered. Modeling the wire by setting the axial component of the electric field to zero in the FDTD method results in an effective wire radius that is determined by the mesh discretization. Neglecting the wire radius in applications, such as electromagnetic interference (EMI) or printed circuit board modeling, may result in gross errors because near-field quantities are typically sensitive to wire thickness. Taflove et al. (1988) have developed a subcellular FDTD algorithm for modeling wires that has been shown to work well for plane wave scattering. The method uses a quasistatic field approximation to model wires with a well defined radius independent of the mesh dimensions. The wire model is reviewed and investigated for application to common-mode radiation from cables attached to printed circuit boards, where the source is often a noise voltage at the connector. Also investigated is energy coupling to attached cables through enclosure apertures resulting in common-mode radiation from the cable. The input impedance for a center-fed dipole antenna, as well as a monopole connected to a conducting half-sheet, is computed with FDTD methods and compared to moment method input impedance results. A simulation of a shielding enclosure with an attached cable demonstrates the utility of FDTD analysis in modeling common-mode radiation     

Accurate Characterization of Shielding Effectiveness of Metallic Enclosures With Thin Wires and Thin Slots

In many electrical and electronic systems, metallic enclosures are used to provide electromagnetic shielding. These enclosures normally contain thin wires, thin slots, and frequency-selective slots (FSS) that degrade the shielding effects. In this paper, integrated FDTD formulations are developed that can model both subcellular thin slots and thin wires simultaneously. The formulations are shown to be capable of accurately predicting shielding effectiveness and inner field distributions of a metallic enclosure in both the frequency- and time-domains when subject to a high-power electromagnetic pulse.      

有孔阵矩形机壳屏蔽效能分析

为了评估矩形金属机壳抗外部电磁干扰的能力,基于传输线矩阵法（TLM）分析加装印刷电路板的有孔阵矩形机壳的屏蔽效能。主要讨论孔间距和孔面积之与不变时增加孔的数量所引起屏效（SE）的变化;孔阵面积和孔径不变时,通过改变孔间距考虑孔的数量变化对屏效的影响;改变孔的数量及介电常数时屏效的变化以及在圆孔阵、圆内接方形孔阵、圆外切方形孔阵3种情况下屏蔽效能的对比;通过仿真结果,验证出最佳方案。     

Fundamentals of Steady-State and Transient Electromagnetic Fields in Shielding Enclosures

A simplified theory of electromagnetic shielding by enclosures with conductive and/or magnetic wails is presented. The theory is based on a simplified type of boundary condition at the enclosure walls. Theoretical results are compared with exact solutions for steady-state and transient excitation and the approximation turns out to be extremely good in all cases of practical interest. For enclosures of arbitrary shapes, the problem is formulated as a single integral equation in the unknown current in the shield. Numerical solution of the equation is discussed, as well as a possible equivalent lumped-circuit representation.     

Time-Domain Investigation on Cable-Induced Transient Coupling Into Metallic Enclosures

A hybrid time-domain method is proposed for characterizing electromagnetic interference (EMI) signals coupled into some composite structures with metallic enclosures, braided shielded cable, printed circuit boards, and even lumped active devices. In order to rapidly capture the induced interior EMI, the finite-difference time-domain, modified node analysis, and multiconductor transmission lines methods are combined together and implemented successfully. Numerical investigation is carried out to demonstrate the frequency-dependent transfer impedance of the coaxial cable, the induced voltage at the place of active loaded element in the transmission line network, and the enclosure shielding effectiveness of these composite enclosures. The captured transient response information is useful for further designing electromagnetic protection of the inner circuits against the impact of voltage or current surge caused by nonintentional as well as intentional electromagnetic interference.      

双层加载电路板屏蔽腔屏蔽效能研究

为了提高设备中电子元件抵御来自外界和内部其他元件的电磁干扰,根据传输线理论,将双层加载电路板屏蔽腔体模型转换为电路图,利用电路图推导出腔体中心屏蔽效能的等效公式。利用Matlab生成传输线法屏蔽效能曲线,并通过仿真软件CST建模仿真,仿真结果与Matlab输出曲线良好吻合,验证了公式的正确性。运用CST研究了一些因素如电路板大小、数量、放置方式以及距孔缝的距离对屏蔽效能的影响。为了更加贴合实际,采用加载集成运算放大电路的印制电路板来研究腔体屏蔽效能以及腔体对电路板功能的影响,最后提出了一些提高屏蔽效能的方法。     

混响室法欠模状态屏蔽体屏蔽效能测试技术研究

欠模状态下屏蔽壳体内部场分布不均匀,屏蔽效能测量结果与位置相关,因此需要利用探头或单极子天线进行多位置测量,过程繁琐。文中利用长线天线来测量欠模状态下屏蔽壳体屏蔽效能,并与单极子天线测量结果进行比较。在暗室中测量天线自由空间反射系数S₁₁;在混响室中利用不同天线测量屏蔽壳体的屏蔽效能,并利用S₂₂分析腔体谐振特性。测量结果表明,长线天线宽频带匹配特性优于单极子天线,测量的屏蔽效能能够更好地反映屏蔽体谐振特性,为屏蔽壳体的屏蔽效能测试评估提供了指南,具有工程应用价值。     

A proposed new definition and measurement of the shielding effect of equipment enclosures

This paper describes the rationale behind a new proposed measurement of the screening effect of an equipment enclosure that takes into account the contents of the enclosure. The method uses a set of representative contents for enclosures. The representative contents are equipped with surface field probes to measure the power entering the contents. The ratio of this power to the incident power density is used to derive a quantity with the dimensions of area, termed here the shielding aperture. The measurement technique is described and examples of measurements are given along with computed comparisons with the conventional shielding effectiveness of the enclosures used.     

Magnetic Field And Field Gradient Corrections Within a Nonconducting Sensor Enclosure in a Conducting Fluid?Part II: Vorticity

Measurements of ocean-generated magnetic fields in submerged enclosures are affected by the nonconducting enviromment within the sensor housing. There are two physical sources for the effect: the exclusion of the electrical current from the interior of the enclosure and the perturbation of the hydrodynamic flow field produced by the enclosure. This paper extends previous work by including vorticity in the perturbed velocity field in addition to potential flow. Solutions are obtained for the case of a spherical enclosure in the low Reynolds number regime. A general theory for the effect of double geometry enclosures is also developed.     

Shielding effectiveness of metallic enclosures at oblique and arbitrary polarizations

Shielding effectiveness of metallic enclosures with apertures when illuminated by an oblique incidence arbitrary polarized plane wave has been studied by using an efficient hybrid modal/moment technique. Shielding effectiveness of rectangular enclosures with one, two, and four apertures at multiple points inside the enclosures for various frequencies has been calculated when the illuminating source flies by the front of the enclosure. The work shows that the shielding effectiveness is seriously affected by frequency, angle of incidence and polarization of the illuminating field; the number and orientation of apertures; and the location inside the cavity. It has been shown that the usual assumption about the normal incidence being the worst-case scenario for shielding effectiveness values may not be valid when there is more than one aperture in the cavity. The paper emphasizes the need for the statistical investigation of shielding effectiveness problem of metallic enclosures with apertures.     

Interleaving Cavity Resonances for Shielding Enhancement in Topologically Definable Spaces

Shielding enhancement can be obtained via resonance interleaving when applied to complex, layered shielded enclosures. Resonance interleaving assumes that the enclosure is subject to topological decomposition into weakly coupled separate regions. For each region a set of unperturbed resonances is found by eliminating outside coupling. Resonance interleaving is achieved by adjusting the geometries or boundary conditions on the separate regions to minimize overlapping of the unperturbed resonances of adjacent regions. It is shown mathematically how this reduces the energy transfer between adjacent regions. Various means of obtaining the unperturbed resonances so that interleaving can be performed are discussed. An example of the shielding effect is examined and from it a qualitative estimate of a ~ 12 dB shielding effectiveness increase over critical frequency intervals is made. It is noted that the cost of using this approach in designing enclosures is minimal, in that only small geometry changes may be sufficient, and the concept can be used to locate design problems in pre-existing designs.     

A hybrid FD-MoM technique for predicting shielding effectiveness of metallic enclosures with apertures

In this paper, a hybrid technique combining the finite-difference (FD) method and the method of moments (MoM) in the frequency domain is proposed to predict the shielding effectiveness of rectangular conducting enclosures with apertures under external illumination. The interior and exterior regions of the enclosure are analyzed separately by employing the field equivalence principle. Internal electromagnetic fields are discretized using the (FD) method, while external fields are formulated by the MoM. Enforcement of continuity of the tangential magnetic field over the aperture surface gives the desired equation to solve for electromagnetic fields everywhere. Numerical results for the shielding effectiveness of a rectangular cavity with apertures calculated by the new hybrid technique are presented and validated by comparing with experimental data.