Software Module for Analytical Assessment of Shielding Effectiveness for Multilayer Structures Made of Metal Films and Composite Materials

The paper presents a software module for analytical assessment of shielding effectiveness (SE) for multilayer structures made of metal films and polymer composites. In this module, the multilayer shielding structure is considered as a cascade of two-port networks with different ABCD-parameters. The calculation of SE is based on our proposed algorithm, which combines two analytical models for conducting and non-conducting shielding materials. The paper starts by describing the algorithm, development tools, architecture, and graphical user interface of the module. Then the module verification results are presented using four simple shielding structures as examples. It is shown that the average deviation between the reference $S E$ values and the results obtained in our module does not exceed 1 dB. Using the created software module, we also study multilayer structures made of thin copper films deposited on various substrates. It was found that the substrate material of the thin film shield has a negligible effect on SE. Thus, in the frequency range up to $\mathbf{5 ~ G H z}$ for two- and three-layer structures, replacement of the substrate material from the dielectric to radiation-absorbing composite with ferrite particles gave an insignificant increase of 5 dB.