Daily Image
03-07-2020
A 3D printed RFI enclosure
| Submitter: | Lesley Goudbeek |
| Description: | Radio Frequency Interference is a recurring subject at almost every project within ASTRON. Many competence groups within ASTRON have tricks up their sleeve to mitigate RFI, be it in software, with electronics or as mechanical design. Broadening the available options is always embraced, and this is exactly what the mechanical department has been up to with the Region of Smart Factories (RoSF) project. Together with student Niels Rietdijk, they have 3D printed a plastic enclosure that has been cold sprayed afterwards with a tin deposition by the company Dycomet. This results in a tin layer covering the plastic, and as tin is electrically conductive, can be used for RFI shielding. The Daily Image shows the 3D print design, produced product, test setup and preliminary measurement results. The test was done inside the Faraday cage. As comparison, the 3D printed shield was replaced with a copper foil shield. These results are promising, and shows that this can be a viable method of creating shielded 3D printed enclosures. As stated in his report, the 3D printed enclosure attenuates 22dB on average between 1GHz to 3GHz. Niels furthermore made a design for the RoSF/DISPERSE project that houses an LNA, ADC board, power supply electronics and an optical transmitter. This will be produced with the same method and creates a new trick to shield the internal PCBs from external, and internal generated RFI. Thank you Niels for all your efforts at ASTRON. |
| Copyright: | Niels Rietdijk & ASTRON |
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