Stainless Steel and Copper Magnetron Plasma Coating of Fabrics with Metallic Yarns for Electromagnetic Shielding Applications

Electromagnetic shielding is needed to protect human beings from undesired non-ionizing radiation and to protect electronic equipment from EM interferences. Shielding solution of Electromagnetic Compatibility domain is tackled nowadays by modern manufacturing methods of flexible textile fabrics with electrically conductive properties. Our research focuses on the additional electromagnetic shielding effectiveness (EMSE) rendered by plasma coating of flexible woven fabrics with inserted conductive yarns. EMSE was computed for an experimental plan formed of plasma coating with Copper and Stainless steel with thicknesses of 400 nm and 1200 nm on both sides of woven fabrics with inserted conductive yarns of stainless steel and silver. An additional EMSE of 5-20 dB on the frequency range of 0.1-1000 MHz was achieved by plasma coating. This proves the enhancement of the shielding properties by magnetron plasma coating, without altering the bulk properties of textile fabrics, such as flexibility and mechanical resistance. The paper presents EMSE results in relation to fabric structure, raw metallic materials and frequency of the incident electromagnetic field.