Reducing EMI from a Rectangular Enclosure by

Loading the Slots with Metal Wires

Sana Iqbal, Muhammad Amin Kashif Nadeem, Irfan Majid Muhammad Inam Abbasi
SUPARCO- Lahore, Pakistan AERO- Hassan Abdaal, Pakistan Univerisiti Tun Hussein Onn
sanabostan@gmail.com hkashifnadeem@yahoo.com Malaysia , Johor, Malaysia
Muhammad.amin.mughal@gmail.com irfan.majid@ieee.com muhammad_inamabbasi@yahoo.com

Abstract- In this paper, it has been shown that by loading the electromagnetic radiations. There are many design strategies
slots in enclosure with metal wires, the radiated emissions from which if followed minimizes the radiations and makes the
the cavity can be significantly reduced. Loading slots with equipment less susceptible such as distance between signal
multiple wires eliminate slot cavity resonances and emissions at lines, symmetry in signal and ground lines, multilayer PCBs,
cavity mode resonance frequencies can be reduced by as much as
proper routing of conducting paths and wires etc. However,
80dBµV/m on average. The technique is useful at post fabrication
stage of enclosure to eliminate the peaks at resonant frequencies for general signal Integrity and safety from interference, a
and bring down the level of radiated emission below threshold metallic housing is used, usually aluminum, which is light
values as defined by various standards. weight.
A metallic enclosure with no holes, slots, apertures & vents
Keywords-component; Electromagnetic Interference (EMI); provides almost perfect shielding by attenuating the E-field
Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC); Cavity mode resonance escaping from the enclosure to extremely low level (Figure 1).
This however is not strictly applicable for quasi static low
frequency (where electric and magnetic fields are not strongly
I. INTRODUCTION coupled) magnetic fields. This is because metallic walls do not
EMI (Electromagnetic Interference) & EMC (Electromagnetic provide very effective shielding against the magnetic fields.
Compatibility) standards are increasingly becoming applicable Magnetic field requires high permeability materials which are
to more and more commercial electronic products. Besides also known as mu- metals. In this paper we only discuss
commercial products there are military standards defined for shielding of electric fields or electromagnetic radiations (high
military equipment. These standards are also applicable to frequency fields, when electric and magnetic fields are
satellite subsystems. The stringent standards [1] restrict the strongly coupled). Shielding from electric fields or
equipment/ product not to emit radiations greater than a electromagnetic energy can best be done by using a metallic
threshold value [2] and ensure its proper functioning without enclosure as described above but shielding enclosures require
significant performance degradation if there are radiations slots, apertures, vents and/or holes due to various reasons such
equal to or less than the threshold value. The noise may enter as heat dissipation, I/O connector ports including unused or
from one equipment (which may be called source) to another open ports, for weight reduction [3], [4], facilitating control
equipment (which may be called victim) either through panels, dials, visual access windows [5], and to prevent
wireless medium (through radiations), in which case it is outgassing issues in outer-space environment. Loading slot
called Radiated Emission (RE), or via wires & cables, in with wires, to reduce radiated emission level is useful to avoid
which case it is called Conducted Emission (CE). For source emission at sensitive receiver frequencies where various
equipment thresholds are defined so that it should not radiated standards such as FCC & MIL-STD461E define stringent E-
electromagnetic energy greater than this. For victim field threshold values [6], [7].
equipment minimum and maximum values of outputs are One significant advantage of loading the slots with wires is
defined such that if these outputs remain within these values, that this technique can be adopted without making any design
it is assumed it is functioning properly. If the outputs are less change in the housing or enclosure. Design of the housing
than the minimum or greater than the maximum value, the takes place at early stages. These mechanical structures
equipment is said not to be functioning properly. Description require a lot of machining and the process is time consuming.
of allowable values for these outputs is also called EMI/EMC tests are carried out at later stages once the
performance matrix. If the victim equipment, when exposed to enclosure is completely ready. If non-compliance is found, the
specified levels of emission conforms to the performance change in housing design may be one solution, however its
matrix, it is said that the equipment is not susceptible to EMI. implementation at such a later stage might not be possible.
However if during the exposure to electromagnetic radiations Therefore loading slot with wires is a very useful alternative
the outputs are out of range as defined in performance matrix to reduced levels of undesired emission.
it is concluded that the equipment is susceptible to
Presence of these slots and holes significantly contribute to geometry of the enclosure is shown in Figure 2. The thickness
increased EMI levels and hence besides cavity resonance of the walls is taken to be 0.1mm, albeit thickness does not
modes, slot and slot-cavity modes are also introduced [3]. have any significant effects on the results as long as inner
Peaks in Figure1 represent cavity, slot and cavity-slot modes. dimensions of the cavity are same as in [3], [4] and the
In general slot dimensions can be varied but if standard thickness is neither less than a few skin depths (for the
connectors such as DB/D-sub are to be used, their dimensions penetration of electromagnetic energy) nor comparable to
are fixed depending on the number of connecting pins. wavelength (i.e. slot does not behave as waveguide).
Presence of slot in a metallic enclosure has two effects [2].
Firstly emission levels from enclosure become significant.
Secondly, new resonance peaks appear due to slot resonance
and slot–cavity resonance. In the former case if emission
levels are greater than the threshold levels it requires
mitigation and in the later case if radiation sources inside the
enclosure or those present in the vicinity of the EUT or their
harmonics are close to the resonant frequencies, this will
generate worst conditions as far as EMI/EMC is concerned [8]
and thus again would require some remedial measures to
reduce these emissions or shift those to some non-critical
frequencies.

Figure 2. Enclosure geometry

E-field 3m away from enclosure is simulated. Initially, with

no wire loaded in the 12cm long slot, peaks due to cavity
resonance modes TMy101, TMy111 and TMy201 at 861.735
MHz, 1.367 GHz and 1.528 GHz respectively are seen
(Figure 1). Peaks due to slot at 1.212GHz and cavity-slot at
1.05GHz and 1.413GHz are also observed. The maximum
EMI level in the range 0.7-1.6 GHz range occurs for the
cavity-slot mode at 1.538 GHz [3]. The EMI level
corresponding to a source voltage of 1V is above FCC class B
limit [6] and MIL-STD-461E [7] throughout the frequency
Figure 1. Simulated results for test enclosure with and without slot with 1V
range.
source In order to lower the EMI level metallic wires of 1mm radius
are placed in this 12cm slot as shown in Figure 3.
Initially, with 2 to 3 wires (Figure.3 a) loaded, slot resonance
II. SIMULATION SETUP at 1.212 GHz is eliminated as shown in Figure 4. Also the
In [3], [4] analysis is done for a rectangular enclosure to find overall EMI level reduces by 25dBµV/m.
out the cavity, slot & slot-cavity resonances by varying the
8 wires reduce EMI level by 40dBµV/m and 15 wires reduce
dimensions of the slot. Using the same enclosure it by 55dBµV/m (Figure 5). But E-field levels are still above
(22cm×14cm×30cm) and slot geometry (for the case when FCC B Limit and MIL-STD-461E compliance criterion. (Note
slot dimension is 12cm×1mm) and the same excitation that the most stringent of all limit curves defined for RE102 in
technique, effect on radiated emission by loading the slot with MIL-STD-461E is taken here [7]).
wires is studied in CST Microstripes, that employs one of the
suggested numerical methods [9] i.e. formulation of the time-
domain Transmission-Line Matrix (TLM) method [10]. The
 Figure 3. Wires Loaded in the slot in equidistant fashion

Figure 5. Simulated results of E-field at 3m with 8 & 15 wires loaded in the

These requirements are met given more number of wires are slot
loaded i.e. with 18 wires loaded equidistant the highest peak at
1.528GHz reduces to 30.8dBµV/m. Figure 6 shows that EMI
level is quite below the desired threshold with 19 wires
(Figure. 3c).

Figure 6. Simulated results of E-field at 3m with 19 wires loaded in the slot

Figure 4. Simulated results of E-field at 3m with 2 & 3 wires loaded in the

slot
III. CONCLUSION
Loading the slot with wires attenuates the radiated emission
levels in addition to elimination of slot and slot-cavity
resonances within the frequency range of interest. Hence the
threshold levels defined by standards can be met even in
enclosure post fabrication stage. If the slot is there for heat
ventilation purpose, there is limit to which the number of
wires can be used, however, in case of D-sub connectors [9] M. P. Robinson, T. M. Benson, C. Christopoulos, J. F. Dawson, M. D.
Ganley, A. C. Marvin, S. J. Porter, and D. W. P. Thomas, “Analytical
greater number of wires can be loaded in space between the
formulation for the shielding effectiveness of enclosures with
connecting pins in order to reduce emission levels. apertures,”IEEE Trans. Electromagn. Compat., vol. 40, pp. 240–248,
Aug. 1998.
REFERENCES [10] CST AG, CST Microstripes Reference Manual, 2009

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