On the Shielding Properties of Woven Microfiber Materials for Potential EMC Applications of IoT Devices

Internet of Things (IoT) has emerged as a consequential platform for next-generation wireless communication. As IoT requires millions of wireless devices to be connected and exchange data frequently among them in an open large-scale communication, it is imperative to ensure electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) of those wireless devices. In this paper, the shielding properties of woven carbon microfiber materials (CMM) placed over the aperture of a metallic enclosure is evaluated for frequency ranges from 1 GHz – 4 GHz for potential EM shielding applications of wireless IoT devices. Initially, shielding effectiveness of CMM samples were measured and simulated followed by the parametric simulation to predict the conductivity of the samples. The results were then compared to the measured ones. A good agreement between the simulated, measured, and analytical results demonstrated that CMM though having less conductivity than traditional metallic shields, shows comparable shielding effectiveness, which makes it a possible candidate for EM shielding due to its light weight, corrosion resistance, and flexibility.