PVD used for EMI RFI Shielding? You bet. Also known as physical vapor deposition coatings or thin film coating can bring measurable benefit to a variety of parent materials used for EMI RFI shielding.
What is EMI RFI shielding? Simply put, it is the means to eliminate or reduce electromagnetic interference or common radio interference. Given the massive growth of electronics products, both consumer and industrial, we must ensure our safety and security using these devices.
Whether military, aerospace, medical or consumer related, our lives depend on electronics. Their operational failure, disruption or damage, can have catastrophic consequences. Devices get smaller and smaller, shortening allowable paths of energy propagation. Processors are getting faster and faster. The result is more and more interference. And that is why the need for electromagnetic protection is a growing concern.
So, how do we solve the issue? Well, the answer is we must reflect, transmit, filter or ground. That is achieved by adding a conductive surface to the specific environment, so the wave of energy can be transferred to another source. Proven by Michael Faraday, his "Faraday Cage" says we can eliminate disruption or damage by offering a conductive enclosure.
An attractive way of doing that is through thin film coatings. They are strongly adherent and ductile, can be applied to a variety of materials, in a variety of conductive coating material choices, like aluminum, copper, nickel and chrome. In addition, these coating processes (applied by condensation or sputtering under vacuum) are environmentally friendly and produce no bi-products. That is especially important with the emerging RoHS, ELV and WEEE Directives that affect protective coating, too.
So, in your next product design requiring EMI RFI shielding, consider PVD coating.
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