Electromagnetic Shielding Properties of Super Fiber-Reinforced Composites

Electromagnetic shielding effect material is needed because electronic devices suffer electromagnetic interference. Otherwise, in many engineering designs such as antenna fairings, sonar cover and stealth aircraft, materials with good electromagnetic penetration are desired. High performance fiber-reinforced composites have high specific strength and mechanical properties, and there is therefore a need to develop an electronics enclosure with optimum shielding by using a combination of particular fiber reinforcements and a polymer matrix. This paper describes the development of high-performance fiber-reinforced composites that use four high strength fibers (super fibers), Dyneema SK60 (an ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene fiber), Zylon HM (poly-p-phenylenebenzobisoxazole fiber), Technora T-241J (aramid fiber) and Torayca T800HB (carbon fiber). These super fibers were fabricated by compression molding and their shielding effectiveness (SE) was tested. The results showed that the newly developed Dyneema fiber, Zylon fiber and Technora fiber composites exhibited low electromagnetic shielding properties of 1.3~2.3 dB at a frequency of 0.5~18 GHz. Furthermore, the Torayca fiber composite has high electromagnetic shielding properties of 10.2~20.7 dB at the same frequency. It is expected that these high-strength composites with optimum SE can be obtained by controlling the electromagnetic shielding properties from hybrid multi-fiber structures.