Electromagnetic shielding performance of different metallic coatings deposited by arc thermal spray process

Abstract

Advancement in electronic and communication technologies bring us up to date, but it causes electromagnetic interference (EMI) resulting in failure of building and infrastructure, hospital, military base, nuclear plant, and sensitive electronics. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance to prevent the failure of structures and electronic components from EMI using conducting coating. In the present study, Cu, Cu-Zn, and Cu-Ni coating was deposited in different thicknesses and their morphology, composition, conductivity, and EMI shielding effectiveness are assessed. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) results show that 100 µm coating possesses severe defects and porosity but once the thickness is increased to 500 µm, the porosity and electrical conductivity is gradually decreased and increased, respectively. Cu-Zn coating exhibited lowest in porosity, dense, and compact morphology. As the thickness of coating is increased, the EMI shielding effectiveness is increased. Moreover, 100 µm Cu-Zn coating shows 80 dB EMI shielding effectiveness at 1 GHz but Cu and Cu-Ni are found to be 68 and 12 dB, respectively. EMI shielding effectiveness results reveal that 100 µm Cu-Zn coating satisfy the minimum requirement for EMI shielding while Cu and Cu-Ni required higher thickness.