Evaluation of 3D Printed Shields in an EMC Chamber for Mitigating Electromagnetic Interference

Sammanfattning

This thesis investigated 3D-printed lightweight alternatives to conventional metalshielding for mitigating electromagnetic interference in board-level applications.The work consisted of two main parts: the development of a comb generatorwith a broadband antenna solution and the experimental evaluation of 3D-printedshield configurations in an anechoic chamber. The comb generator was designedto provide a repeatable radiated reference source with useful harmonic contentup to 3 GHz, and shielding effectiveness was evaluated by comparing unshieldedand shielded measurements for polyethylene terephthalate glycol (PETG) and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene electrostatic discharge-safe (ABS-ESD7) shields withdifferent conductive treatments and geometries. Results showed that the brass reference shield provided the highest shielding effectiveness, while the coated 3Dprinted shields performed better than their uncoated counterparts. In terms ofweight, the 3D-printedalternatives also achieved weightreductioncomparedwiththe brass shield, with measured masses ranging from 13.45 grams to 34.14 gramscompared with 96.90 grams for the brass reference shield. The work showedthat conductive-coated 3D-printed shields could provide useful shielding whileoffering lower weight, faster prototyping, and greater geometric flexibility. Thedeveloped comb-generator-based method also proved suitable for comparativeevaluation of lightweight shielding concepts in board-level shielding applications.