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On-Board Shielding: Principles and Practice: Tim Williams 29th September 2010

The document discusses principles and practices for on-board shielding. It describes options for shield materials like formed metal cans and coated plastics. Shields should be chosen based on the frequency range, with thicker conductive materials needed for lower magnetic frequencies. Connections to the circuit ground plane should be made at multiple points to minimize inductance. Apertures in shields can reduce effectiveness, so they should be placed away from noisy components. Interfaces through shields may require filtering. On-board shields can help isolate wireless modules, digital circuits, and heatsinks from noise.

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48 views

On-Board Shielding: Principles and Practice: Tim Williams 29th September 2010

The document discusses principles and practices for on-board shielding. It describes options for shield materials like formed metal cans and coated plastics. Shields should be chosen based on the frequency range, with thicker conductive materials needed for lower magnetic frequencies. Connections to the circuit ground plane should be made at multiple points to minimize inductance. Apertures in shields can reduce effectiveness, so they should be placed away from noisy components. Interfaces through shields may require filtering. On-board shields can help isolate wireless modules, digital circuits, and heatsinks from noise.

Uploaded by

ptkn
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Southern Region Compliance Group

On-board shielding: principles and practice


Tim Williams 29th September 2010

Consultancy and training in electromagnetic compatibility e-mail [email protected] web www.elmac.co.uk phone +44 1929 558279 1

Outline

Options for on-board shields Electric or magnetic shield?


Choice of shielding material

Connection of the shield


Interfaces Apertures

Application examples
On-board wireless Heatsinks
2

Options for on-board shields Formed metal can


Typically tin-plated cold rolled steel, but also: plated copper, beryllium copper, brass, nickel-silver, tin plated aluminium Photo-chemically machined or die-cut and pressed

Conductively coated injection moulded plastic


Typically conductive paint or electroless plated nickel/copper

Multi-compartment construction
Labyrinths or conductive elastomer internal walls

Foil laminates Microwave absorber/shield combination

Formed metal PCB shields


separate wall and clip-on lid single-piece (beware re-work!) surface mount or through-hole

custom parts standard parts kits


Pictures courtesy Tecan

Electric versus magnetic field


250

Intrinsic shielding effectiveness of 0.1mm thick copper at 10cm from source

Total (R + A)
200

150 dB 100

E-field reflection

electromagnetic reflection

50

H-field reflection
0 0.01 0.1 1 MHz 10

Absorption

100

1000

There are three field types: electric, magnetic and electromagnetic Reflection from a conductive surface of any thickness is good for electric (E-field) and electromagnetic but poor for magnetic Good magnetic (H-field) shielding needs either a permeable material (LF) or a thicker conductive material (HF) for absorption
5

The effect of skin depth


mm 10.000

Skin depth

1.000

0.100

Copper Aluminium Brass Gold Silver Tin Steel Nickel Mumetal

surface

0.010

Varying r vs. frequency

Commercial radiated frequency range

0.001 1 1kHz 10 kHz 100 10k 100k 1000 1M 10000 10M 100000 1000000 100M 1G

Current density drops 8.6dB for every penetration: low values of give good absorption

Skin depth: = 66.1 1/(rrF) mm (F in Hz) Above 30MHz, many materials have < 20m RF current falls 8.6dB for every penetration into material
6

Choice of material for the shield For high frequency and low frequency E-field applications any metal will do, although higher conductivity is better
because of , thickness is hardly important choice determined by mechanical, assembly and environmental considerations

Microprocessors and VLSI ICs, wireless on board, hi-Z circuits

For low frequency H-field applications a permeable metal is needed


greater thickness and r gives greater absorption although, some magnetic field cancellation occurs through current flow in a "shorted turn" conductive shield

SMPS, audio and power transformers, magnetic sensors

On-board E-field shielding


Capacitive coupling from noisy parts ... is eliminated by shield

PCB2 (or chassis)

PCB1 through hole pin connections to ground plane

Where and how to connect?


An on-board shield will normally be used in conjunction with a circuit 0V plane
an inadequate plane will limit the effectiveness of the shield

The shield should be connected to this plane with the lowest possible inductance, to prevent it becoming "live"
implies multi-point or continuous connection all around the shield base
Capacitive coupling of noise source... Inductance of connections to 0V plane will determine noise voltage on shield changed to capacitive coupling of remaining noise on shield

V 0V plane Device(s) to be shielded referenced to 0V plane

Apertures
Apertures in the connection to the 0V plane will increase the inductance of this connection
keep spacing between connections to a minimum

Apertures in the lid will cause capacitive leakage through the shield
don't put apertures near to devices with a high dv/dt noise voltage
Capacitive coupling of noise source through apertures

Gaps in connection mean increased inductance V 0V plane

10

Filtering interfaces through the shield


low impedance filter

PCB shield bonded to ground plane


3-terminal SM filter e.g. Murata type NFM, NFL

Mousehole aperture for components

Filter components straddle shield wall

2-line CM choke e.g. Murata type DLM, DLW

high impedance filter

series chokes straddle the barrier parallel capacitors grounded with the lowest possible inductance
11

Partitioning the housing


An outer enclosure doesn't always have to be shielded
partitioning sections into clean box and dirty box is effective and can be done with an on-board shield but filter or isolation barriers between the sections are essential
on-board shield dirty section display keyboard filters external terminals Plastic enclosure dirty section isolators partition
12

filters

Main circuit in shielded clean section

Wireless on-board
Near field capacitive coupling control by separation distance of the noisiest parts (attenuation d3 in near field), but may not be adequate antenna

Digital section

Wireless module

C2 shield C1

antenna

Shielding can arrangement


Digital section shield C2 LG Wireless module Inductance of ground plane connection LG Most critical component Equivalent circuit of shielding can, neglecting structural resonances 13

C1 VN

Heatsinks: the problem


Metallic enclosure

C2
Circulating currents developed in enclosure via C1 and C2
Stray capacitances (floating heatsink)

Heatsink

C1
Microprocessor

PCB

Radiated emissions from weak points in enclosure

Noise voltage VN developed on processor w.r.t circuit 0V

Cure is to connect heatsink to circuit 0V (not to case) via multipoint links but this might be difficult
14

Heatsinks: on-board shield solution

Thermal conductive washer Heatsink

Enclosure

shield

C1'
Thermal conductive compound

PCB Microprocessor

C1' is referenced to shield, which returns noise currents to circuit 0V; minimum voltage appears on heatsink device dissipation is conducted to heatsink through shield, which may act as a heat spreader
15

Summary
Know what frequency range is to be shielded
calculate skin depth and choose shield type/material accordingly

lay out PCBs expecting that noisy/sensitive circuits will benefit from onboard shields
apply strict segmentation rules allow land areas on the surface of the PCB where a shield might fit its much easier to omit a shield that was designed in, than vice versa

design the shield in conjunction with a circuit 0V plane


create as many connections through to the plane as possible - the higher the frequency range, the closer together must be the connection points ensure that interfaces through the shield are adequately filtered

keep the shield box design as simple as possible


less complexity makes for a cheaper unit cost fewer apertures make for better shielding performance
16

On-board shielding

The End
Thank you for your attention!

Consultancy and training in electromagnetic compatibility e-mail [email protected] web www.elmac.co.uk phone +44 1929 558279 17

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