Abstract-There is increasing interest in electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding due to the serious electromagnetic environment pollution caused by the continuously increased use of the electrical products and electronic devices. Electrical conductivity and EMI shielding effectiveness (SE) of composite materials made from silicone rubber with carbon powder and ferrite powder have been studied in microwaves and terahertz frequency ranges and the results are presented in this paper. In microwaves range, samples with higher electrical conductivity show a small variation of shielding performance with frequency, whereas the performance of samples with lower conductivity falls away with increasing frequency. It is shown that the variation of attenuation with frequency relates to the conductivity of the material.

The paper proposes the analytic modelling of flexible textile shields made of fabrics with inserted conductive yarns and metallic plasma coating in order to calculate their electromagnetic shielding effectiveness (EMSE). This manufacturing process is highly innovative, since copper plasma coating improves EMSE on the fabrics with inserted conductive yarns of stainless steel and silver with 10–15 dB in the frequency range of 0.1–1000 MHz, as shown by the measured EMSE values determined according to the standard ASTM ES-07 via the Transverse Electromagnetic (TEM) cell. On the other hand, modelling of EMSE for such conductive flexible shields gives an insight on estimating EMSE in the design phase of manufacturing the shield, based on its geometric and electrical parameters. An analytic model was proposed based on the sum of EMSE of the fabric with inserted conductive yarns and EMSE of the copper coating. The measurement results show close values to the proposed analytic model, especially in case of fabric with conductive yarns having stainless steel content.

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Fabrics for electromagnetic shielding are especially relevant in nowadays context, contributing to human’s protection and wellbeing and to proper functioning of electronic equipment, in relation to electromagnetic compatibility. Fabrics with electromagnetic shielding properties employ two main technologies, namely insertion of conductive yarns and application of conductive coatings. Magnetron sputtering is a modern technology to enable conductive coatings with thickness in the range of nanometers onto fabrics. This paper aims to analyze contribution of various conductive textile structures out of both fabrics with inserted conductive yarns and coatings to Electromagnetic shielding effectiveness (EMSE). EMSE was measured in the frequency range of 0.1–1000 MHz by using a TEM cell according to standard ASTM ES-07. Results show a gain of 10–25 dB when introducing silver yarns in warp/ weft direction, a variation of 5–35 dB between conductive yarns out of silver and stainless steel and an up to 12 dB gain out of thin copper coating by magnetron plasma onto the fabrics with inserted conductive yarns

Nowadays, fiber based flexible electromagnetic shields have widespread applications in ensuring Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC). Shielding is a solution of EMC, and the main methods to estimate shielding effectiveness are represented by the circuit method and the impedance method. Magnetron sputtering of metallic layers represents a novel technique to impart electric conductive properties to fabrics. Coating of fabrics represents a second main option to manufacture textile shields beside the insertion of conductive yarns in the fabric structure. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is often used to assess a comparatively modern with a classical manufacturing process in order to prove its eco-friendly character. This chapter comparatively assesses flexible EM shields manufactured of fabrics with inserted conductive yarns with and without magnetron plasma coating. The copper plasma coating of cotton fabrics with inserted silver yarns increases shielding effectiveness (EMSE) by 8–10 dB. In order to keep for the LCA study the same functional unit of 50 dB at 100 MHz for one sqm of fabric, the fabric structure is modeled with a reduced distance between the inserted conductive yarns. Results of the LCA study show a substantial impact on the environment for the plasma coated fabric upon using a laboratory scale deposition set-up.