Shielding Effectiveness Data on Commercial Thermoplastic Materials

Ten different commercially available conductive thermoplastic materials have been tested for near- and far-field shielding effectiveness (SE). Far-field SE was tested using a modified standard measurement technique to provide results comparable with the company-provided data. Further, housings of different thermoplastic materials were constructed and equipped with an electromagnetic interference (EMI) source to model a realistic near-field SE situation. The SE data up to 1 GHz is presented. Conductive thermoplastic materials with fillings of stainless steel fibers and nickel-coated carbon fibers were the two materials that offer the best far-field shielding performance. For the near-field shielding, two materials with filling of stainless steel fibers were the best performing ones. A thermoplastic with polycarbonate (PC) base and stainless steel content of 1.5 vol% showed the best combined far- and near-field shielding results.