This course offers a comprehensive guide for implementing shielding in ways that are most effective to prevent different kinds of electromagnetic interference (EMI).  It is designed for students involved in multiple areas of hardware design, including mechanical as well as electrical.  We will cover shielding for both high frequency electric fields as well as lower frequency magnetic fields.  Shielding implementation will be discussed at the board, enclosure, cabling, and integrated platform levels.

There is a lot of confusion a lot this particular topic, so lessons are reinforced with live hardware demonstrations that show these principles paying out on real hardware.  Students will have the opportunity to do shielding calculations and think deeply about the interactions being demonstrated on the bend.  This topic never fails to yield excellent interactive discussions.

1. Identify different electromagnetic threats and potential victims that will need to be addressed via shielding on a given system.
2. Explain how shielding interacts with electromagnetic fields across a broad frequency range, from audio (kHz) to radio frequencies (GHz).
3. Identify different levels at which shielding may be appropriate (PCB, cabling, enclosure, and systems).
4. Identify the weaknesses of any given shield type and develop strategies to mitigate them.
5. Review shield implementation to identify potential unintended antenna effects.
6. Evaluate data sheets for different shield types from multiple manufacturers (who may use different measurement standards).
7. Explain how skin depth dictates the thickness of shielding needed.
8. Implement appropriate bonding techniques for maximal effective shielding.

Session 01: Faraday Cages

Review the idealized shielding configuration.  All our shielding efforts will attempt to get as close to the faraday cage ideal as possible, while accounting for real-world apertures, seams, and penetrations.

Session 02: Skin Depth

Review how electromagnetic fields (electric and magnetic) interact with conductive materials across frequency, including at least one skin-depth caculation tied to material and thickness choice.

Session 03: Transfer Impedance

Review key shielding performance parameters (e.g., shielding effectiveness, transfer impedance) and work throgh a simple example using vendor data.

Session 04: Antenna Effects

Review how configurations of conductors and shields (e.g. pigtails, ground loops, slots) can uintentionally act as antennas and create EMI problems.

Session 05: Shield Implementation

Implement shielding at the cable, PCB, enclosure and system levels, with emphasis on shield terminations and bonding/grouding strategies.  

Session 06: Evaluation

Demeonstrate practical measurement techniques (e.g., near-field probing, simple fixtures) to evaluate shielding implementations and interpret measurement and data-sheet results.

Karen Burnham

Karen Burnham has worked in the aerospace, defense, and automotive industries since 1996. She has specialized in EMC Engineering since 2011 and started EMC United in 2024. Previous to that she spent time working on project management for EMA in Denver, and doing vehicle testing and troubleshooting for Ford Motor Company, both on traditional gas vehicles and also newer Hybrid Electric vehicles. Earlier she worked as an EMI Test Director at Northrop Grumman's Environmental Test Lab near Baltimore, MD, focusing on MIL-STD-461 testing. Prior to that she was the Lead EMC engineer for the Dream Chaser space vehicle being built by the Sierra Nevada Corporation for crew transport to the International Space Station. She has worked as EMC lead on the NASA side for the European Service Module that will accompany the Orion spacecraft. Her specialty at NASA was in aerospace pyrotechnic systems, and she has conducted extensive research into the RF and lightning susceptibility of NASA Standard Initiators. She is familiar with requirements generation, verification and validation, systems engineering, and test plans. She is an iNARTE certified Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) Engineer and IEEE Senior Member. She received a Master's degree in Electrical Engineering at the University of Houston and a Bachelor's degree in Physics from Northern Arizona University. She was elected to the IEEE EMC Society Board of Directors in 2020 and in 2021 was appointed both the Assistant Vice President of Standards and also a Distinguished Lecturer. She has team leadership experience on programs up to $1.5M and team sizes up to 10, combining leadership and unusually strong communication skills (writing articles and book reviews for various magazines, publishing a book from an academic press) with technical skills revolving around the E3 field. Her experience includes EMC troubleshooting, antennas, testing, requirements development and verification, transmission lines, simulation and modeling. Specialties: Electromagnetic Environmental Effects, EMC noise in electric vehicles, Systems Engineering, Communication with non-specialists, MIL-STD-461 testing, CISPR 12, 16, 25, 36 testing, automotive component-level issues, MIL-STD-461/464 requirements tailoring