EMI Shielding Techniques and Concepts - ElectronicsBeliever

7/23/2019 EMI Shielding Techniques and Concepts | ElectronicsBeliever
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You Need to
EMI Shielding Techniques Know
and Concepts Purpose of

Power Factor
Correction
How Electric
EMI is the hardest thing to deal in switching power Meter Works
supply design. There are several factors that worsen
EMI and there are also some ways to minimize EMI
and able to pass the standards. One of the several
ways to combat EMI is through shielding and we
Top Posts
will discuss here EMI shielding techniques.
How to
Before going far, let us define EMI. EMI means Know if

electromagnetic interference. This is an undesired MOSFET is
phenomenon that all design engineers hate. Have Defective
you observed your TV reception is badly affected
when you plugged in a hair blower in the same SURGE
power source the TV get? This is an EMI thing.
PROTECTIO
Have you heard humming sound from your radio or
even TV when your cellphone receives text message N CIRCUIT
or call? This is an EMI thing. My definition for EMI PRINCIPLE
above is very elementary to make ordinary people and
understand what it is.
DESIGN
EMI is regulated worldwide and there are standards Electricity

to follow like FCC in the US, CE in Europe, and
Saving Box
ICES in Canada. EMI is broken into two main parts;
conducted and radiated. We will discuss these fully Scam
in other topic. Revealed
LED Driver
Circuit
Shielding Definitions Explained
and
From Wikipedia, shielding is defined as: Available
Solutions
1. Shielding is a process of minimizing and
controlling the coupling of radio waves,
electromagnetic fields and electrostatic fields Snubber

Circuit
2. Shielding is a practice of reducing the
Design
electromagnetic field in a space by blocking the field
with barriers made of conductive or magnetic Analysis
materials
3. Shielding is typically applied to enclosures to

isolate electrical devices from the ‘outside world’,
and to cables to isolate wires from the environment
through which the cable runs
In practical thinking, shielding is use to prevent Join 79 other

electromagnetic waves to escape from a noisy subscribers
system or prevent them to enter sensitive systems.
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EMI Shielding Application
Displays
Noisy power devices
Circuits and modules Categories
Membrane switch panel Electronics
Ventilation apertures (42)
Rotating Metal Shafts that Penetrate an Enclosure
BJT (10)
PCB level Circuit
Analysis (1)
ESD (2)
Fuse (3)
EMI Shielding General
Concepts Miscellaneous
(2)
Electric fields will produce forces on the charge MOSFET
carriers within the conductor. When electric fields
(6)
are applied to the surface of an ideal conductor or
simply hit to a shield material, it induces a current
that causes displacement of charge inside the

conductor that cancels the applied field, at which
Optocoupler
point the current stops.
(11)
EMI Shielding puts impedance discontinuity to the RC Circuit

path of a propagating radiated EM wave, either (1)
reflecting it or absorbing it.
Regulators (1)
When an incident noise hit a shield, some portion of
Relay (2)
it will be reflected, absorbed and pass through
with an attenuated magnitude. In a good shield, a Resistor
weak noise wave can pass through. Below illustrates (1)
the scenario. Thermal
Management
(1)
EMI/EMC (1)
LED Drivers
(1)
Others (4)
Power
Electronics (17)
Boost
Converter (3)
Buck
Converter (3)
MOSFET
(2)
Power
Supply (7)
Reviews (6)
Tutorials
(36)
The effectiveness of a shield depends on the three
BJT (5)
factors; reflections, absorption and multiple
reflections. Reflection means an instant reflection of
incident wave when hit a shield surface. Multiple Control

reflections include internal reflections and re-
System (1)
reflections of waves or noise.
ESD (2)
LTSpice (9)
Mathcad
(1)
EMI Shielding Effectiveness
Matlab (2)
Equation MOSFET
(3)
Below equation is can be used to mathematically
determine how effective the shielding is. Power
Supply (1)
Simulink
(2)
SEdB = RdB + AdB + MdB
Where; Uncategorized
(4)
SEdB – Shielding effectiveness
RdB – Reflection loss
AdB – Absorption loss
MdB – Multiple reflections
In far field, reflection loss is the predominant

shielding mechanism at the lower frequencies while
at higher frequencies absorption loss is dominant.
For near field electrical sources, reflection loss is the

predominant at the lower frequencies while
absorption loss is predominant at higher
frequencies.
For near field magnetic sources, absorption loss is

the predominant mechanism at all frequencies
Some EMI Shielding

Techniques
Volumetric Shielding
This is a type of shielding a unit, sub-assembly,

product or device by covering in all six sides,
literally, by covering a box. This is also known as
“Faraday Cage”. This is effective in most cases
however; the drawback is cost and thermal
performance for high power application as the area
bounded or covered will have poor air circulation.
Below is an example how a volumetric shielding is

done. As you can see, there are six surfaces covering
the unit under shield.
Nested Shielding
Nested Shielding is an EMI shielding using different

levels of shield material. Each level is not
necessarily a volumetric shield; it can be a low cost
and simple shield. However, since there are several
layers of shields, this technique still become
effective and even more cost friendly than a single
layer sophisticated shield.
In the above shielding technique, when level 1 shield

fails, there are still levels 2 and level 3.
PCB Level Shielding
PCB shielding is specific to PCB modules. In some

cases, shielding in the enclosure level is unable to
address EMI on the PCB level. Whereas
concentrating on the specific portion of the PCB will
totally solve the issue. This is a common practice in
SMPS wherein design engineers are hunting which
part of the PCB is radiating or conducting noise
then simply tried to shield that area.
Effect of Frequency on
Shielding Performance
In order to categorize the effect of the frequency on
the performance of an EMI shield, we will use the
mathematical expression of skin depth. Skin depth
by the way is defined as the measure of how electric
current flows along the surface of a material. It can
also be shortly defined as the degree of penetration
into a shield. Mathematically,
Where;
Where
Frequency – frequency of the wave
μ – magnetic permeability = μo x μr
μr – relative permeability
μo – 4π x 10-7H/m
σ – electrical conductivity in Ω-1m-1
The ideal value of skin depth must be very low that

implies there is no penetration of noise through the
shield and indeed an effective shielding.
From the above equation, at higher frequencies,

skin depth value is low. This simply means that the
current will tend to flow only at the surface of the
shield material. This phenomenon is commonly as
skin effect. This current will lose its energy as it
travels on the surface due to the finite resistance of
a particular shield material. Due to skin effect, there
is no need to use a thick shield material for high
frequency applications. Also in high frequency, the
shield material doesn’t need to have very high
permeability as the frequency is already very high.
At low frequencies, the skin depth value is high

considering the same material is used. As the ideal
skin depth must be very low, and then by selecting a
material with a very high permeability will help.
Making the shield thicker will also help. There is a
danger attached in using a very high permeability
material as the saturation flux density is lower.
When a shield material saturates, it is not effective
at all.
Saturation issue is can be work around by using

more than one layer of medium permeability with a
good spacing from other layers.
Limiting Factors of an EMI

Shield
Above EMI shielding techniques are limited to the

following factors:
Inherent Electrical Resistance
This is the ability of the conductor to oppose electric

current that results to a partial cancellation of the
incident and excited field. Resistance will vary from
material to material.
Ferromagnetic Response
Some conductors exhibit a so called ferromagnetic

response to low frequency magnetic fields; the
resulting field does not fully attenuated by the
conductor.
Mechanical
Holes, apertures and bonds in a shield will reduce

the field-reflecting capability of a particular shield.
It will allow the current to flow around them; as a
result, the fields passing through them do not excite
opposing electromagnetic fields and there in no
field cancellation.
Cost
The effectiveness of EMI shielding techniques is

greatly dependent to the cost in most cases. In
product manufacturing, cost is the most sensitive
aspect. A larger and sophisticated shield will always
come with a higher cost. The improvement
delivered by the shield may cancel the profit of the
project
Manufacturability
The simpler the shield is, the faster it will

manufacture. However, some sophisticated shields
will come with a complex shape which demands
specialized tools and resources. The cost of these
special tools is expensive and the lead time of
production is long. This will simply result to a
revenue loss.
Thermal Performance
Shields do not interfere with electrical operation.

However, it may block air passages to power devices
and they may go thermal runaway.
For instance in a power supply, most of the times

the boost inductor is causing lot of noise thus shield
is applied to it. By the application of the shield,
airflow cannot penetrate 100% to the boost inductor
and this result to a temperature rise and the
inductor may go saturation. When an inductor
saturates, it will lose inductance and simply acting
almost a short circuit that may cause explosion.
Space
Due to a smaller form factor demand, the size of a

shield is always a challenge to a small form factor
product. It is not a good idea to consider shields late
of the development stage.
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EMI/EMC
EMC AND SHIELD EMI SHIELDING SHIELDING
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7/23/2019 EMI Shielding Techniques and Concepts | ElectronicsBeliever

Follow Us What are you looking?

All Blog Electronics Tutorials Reviews Others Products 

March 21, 2017 ⁄ electronicsbeliever

and Concepts Purpose of

Before going far, let us define EMI. EMI means Know if

EMI is regulated worldwide and there are standards Electricity

electromagnetic fields and electrostatic fields Snubber

3. Shielding is typically applied to enclosures to

In practical thinking, shielding is use to prevent Join 79 other

that causes displacement of charge inside the

EMI Shielding puts impedance discontinuity to the RC Circuit

incident wave when hit a shield surface. Multiple Control

RdB – Reflection loss

AdB – Absorption loss

MdB – Multiple reflections

In far field, reflection loss is the predominant

For near field electrical sources, reflection loss is the

For near field magnetic sources, absorption loss is

Some EMI Shielding

This is a type of shielding a unit, sub-assembly,

Below is an example how a volumetric shielding is

Nested Shielding is an EMI shielding using different

In the above shielding technique, when level 1 shield

PCB Level Shielding

PCB shielding is specific to PCB modules. In some

Frequency – frequency of the wave

σ – electrical conductivity in Ω-1m-1

The ideal value of skin depth must be very low that

From the above equation, at higher frequencies,

At low frequencies, the skin depth value is high

Saturation issue is can be work around by using

Limiting Factors of an EMI

Above EMI shielding techniques are limited to the

Inherent Electrical Resistance

This is the ability of the conductor to oppose electric

Some conductors exhibit a so called ferromagnetic

Holes, apertures and bonds in a shield will reduce

The effectiveness of EMI shielding techniques is

The simpler the shield is, the faster it will

Shields do not interfere with electrical operation.

For instance in a power supply, most of the times

Due to a smaller form factor demand, the size of a

Snubber Circuit Switching Power ACDC 5 Watts

EMC AND SHIELD EMI SHIELDING SHIELDING

« Snubber Circuit Design Analysis

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