Conference Agenda

This paper investigates the effect of cross-plane direction fiber inhomogeneity on the shielding effectiveness of a carbon fiber reinforced polymer. The variation of the fiber density along the direction of wave propagation can be modeled by cutting up a unidirectional lamina into parallel sub-layers, to which homogeneous material parameters are assigned, thereby including the inhomogeneity in the model. If the change of the shielding effectiveness is analyzed according to the sample deviation of the filling rate of sub-layers from the average filling rate, an equivalent filling rate can be obtained, which is the result of this statistical analysis. Using this for homogenization, the shielding effectiveness of the CFRP lamina is obtained more precisely, taking into account the inhomogeneity.

A new wideband technique for determining the complex permittivity of flexible materials between 1 to 6 GHz is presented. In contrast to other methods—which mostly assume a planar geometry and require large samples and transmission lines for wideband measurements, this technique employs a compact setup. By taking advantage of the flexibility of the sample, we introduce a cylindrical measurement configuration capable of determining the complex permittivity of the material under test. Numerical simulations were performed on lossless and dispersive materials to demonstrate the method’s applicability. To further validate the proposed method, a radial waveguide along with its own calibration set was constructed using 3D printing and used to measure a sample of Polylactic Acid (PLA).

This study investigates the impact of planar electromagnetic absorbing materials on the shielding effectiveness of enclosures under both line-of-sight and multipath conditions. The anechoic chamber setup is used to measure reflectivity under fixed polarization and incident angles, whereas the reverberation chamber setup emulates real-world conditions with variable incident angles and polarization to assess shielding effectiveness, quality factor, and absorption cross section. Currently, absorber materials are tested in anechoic chambers often exhibit deviations in performance in practical applications, leading to a trial-and-error approach to material selection that reduces efficiency and predictability. To address this challenge, this study takes an initial step toward establishing a framework for evaluating absorber material performance and its influence on enclosure shielding, ensuring more reliable and predictable performance in real-world applications.

Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) has become one of the widely adopted prototyping utilities for both consumer and industrial product development cycles. One of the main disadvantages of FFF used to be the availability of application-specific filament material. However, in recent years, due to the popularity of desktop rapid prototyping, both the number of filament manufacturers and different types of filaments have skyrocketed. In this research work, Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) Shielding Effectiveness (SE) properties of some potentially viable and commercially off-the-shelf available FFF filaments were tested. The analysis provides a basic overview of the possibility of cost-effective rapid prototyping EMI Shielding solutions. The results indicate that the nylon composite with carbon fiber provided the best SE among the chosen candidates, while the polyethylene terephthalate composite provided the most cost-effective solution. Since all the filaments can be easily bought and utilized in a typical desktop 3D printer, the development of multi-material, multilayered enclosures with complex geometries may offer enhanced SE.