Electromagnetic management
Hard-level EMI shielding is about creating a low-impedance conductive barrier that reflects and attenuates incident fields before they pass through the material. Elect Nano develops nanocarbon-enabled compounds, coatings, and hybrid filler systems for RF, microwave, mmWave, and lower-frequency electronics environments where conductivity, network continuity, thickness, frequency range, interface design, and part geometry all matter.
Interactive RF spectrum
Log-scaled spectrum map with ITU band designations, IEEE radar-frequency bands, representative applications, and wavelength conversion.
Shielding physics
Total shielding effectiveness, SET, is typically understood as the reduction in transmitted power through a material. It is often decomposed conceptually into reflection loss, absorption loss, and multiple-reflection effects.
Interactive shielding physics model
Adjust conductivity, dielectric response, magnetic response, and thickness to estimate plane-wave shielding effectiveness from 30 kHz to 300 GHz. The model uses a lossy transmission-line slab calculation rather than a qualitative slider.
This is a normal-incidence, plane-wave, homogeneous-slab calculation in free space. It is useful for RF engineering intuition and material trade studies, but it does not include seams, apertures, cable penetrations, finite enclosure geometry, near-field source coupling, anisotropy, surface roughness, or manufacturing defects.
The magnetic response intentionally rolls off with frequency. Holding μ′ = 20–100 through microwave and mmWave bands would usually be unphysical for real ferrites or magnetic metal composites.
Traditional fillers
Strong EMI shielding usually requires more than a conductive ingredient. Filler geometry, contact resistance, loading, density, processing, and corrosion or oxidation behavior determine whether the network survives real manufacturing.
| Filler | Conductivity | Density | Cost | Processing note | Best-fit use |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Silver flake | Very high | High | Very high | Rheology-limited at high loading | Thin high-frequency conductive coatings |
| Nickel powder or flake | Moderate | High | Moderate | Loading and oxidation sensitive | Conductive systems needing magnetic contribution |
| Nickel-coated carbon fiber | High when connected | Moderate | Moderate to high | Fiber orientation and breakage sensitive | Molded compounds with aspect-ratio driven pathways |
| Stainless steel fiber | Low to moderate | High | Moderate | Abrasive and surface-finish sensitive | Rugged shielding compounds |
| Nickel-plated graphite | Moderate to high | Moderate | Moderate | Plating and contact quality sensitive | Gaskets and polymer systems |
| Graphite | Low to moderate | Low | Low | Orientation and percolation sensitive | Broad conductive composites where cost matters |
Selected filler
Strengths
Shortfalls
Primary design implication
Thin high-frequency conductive coatings. Evaluate this option against loading, contact resistance, part geometry, and the actual shielding frequency window.
Elect Nano approach
Elect Nano uses precision dispersed conductive nanofillers, including dCNTs and graphene-like nanocarbons, on their own or as hybrid additives with traditional conductive fillers.
Microfiller only
Flakes, fibers, or powders may provide strong local conductivity, but hard shielding depends on whether those islands form a continuous network.
Nanofiller network
Carbon nanotubes and graphene-like structures can create distributed conductive pathways when dispersion quality is controlled.
Hybrid bridge
Hybrid systems use nanoscale conductors to fill electrical gaps between larger particles, lowering contact resistance and improving uniformity.
Frequency-dependent design
Lower frequencies often need thicker conductive paths or magnetic permeability. RF, microwave, and mmWave shielding increasingly reward conductivity, network continuity, surface quality, and precision geometry.
1 to 30 GHz
Surface currents dominate and thin, highly conductive barriers can provide strong shielding.
Applications
Bulk shielding performance matters, but seams, corners, fasteners, cables, joints, and discontinuities often determine whether the enclosure actually suppresses transmission.
Product platform
LCP Spectrum Silence™ is a broadband EMI shielding nanocomposite injection molding compound engineered for high-frequency electronics, space hardware, RF systems, and precision molded components.
Broadband EMI shielding
High shielding per unit thickness
Thin-wall complex molded geometries
Lower density and lower thermal conductivity than metals
Magnetometer-friendly options where low magnetic remanence is needed
RF, microwave, mmWave, and electronics shielding applications
Frequency
Min
66.9
dB/mm
Average
77.1
dB/mm
Max
88.2
dB/mm
Values are thickness-normalized shielding effectiveness in dB/mm across 26.5 to 40 GHz using the Waveguide WR28 measurement set. Toggle total, absorbed, and reflected response to review how the shielding contribution changes with frequency.
Related technology
Move from the core dCNT platform into application-specific paths for ESD control, EMI shielding, RF absorption, and optical coatings. Each page connects material design choices to the performance windows customers evaluate in finished hardware.
Nanocarbon platform
Discretized, functionalized carbon nanotubes engineered for uniform dispersion and matrix-specific compatibility.
Open pageElectrostatic performance
Discrete CNT-enabled ESD materials for uniform static control, clean molded surfaces, and precision electronics handling.
Open pageLoss and attenuation
Precision-dispersed dCNT, graphene, magnetic nanoparticle, and custom matrix systems for RF, microwave, mmWave, space, radar, telecom, and advanced electronics absorbers.
Open pageOptical control
Low-reflectance nanocarbon optical coatings for stray-light suppression, optical systems, aerospace, defense, and space-environment applications.
Open pageMaterial sample review
Share the performance target, process constraints, and use environment. Elect Nano can help define a practical evaluation plan.