Shielding properties of electric and electronic systems in the presence of periodic geometries and materials

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Frank Gronwald
• Subject Area: Electronic Semiconductors, Components and Circuits, Integrated Systems, Sensor Technology, Theoretical Electrical Engineering
• Term: from 2014 to 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 252236641

It is the aim of the proposed project to develop and experimentally validate analytic-numerical methods for the efficient computation of electromagnetic fields in the vicinity of periodic geometries and materials. Existing limitations in the modeling of electromagnetic shielding properties of periodic geometries and materials in the context of Electromagnetic Compatibility of Complex Systems shall be overcome by these methods. The project is based on analytical solutions of the Maxwell equations that are to be combined with the method of moments. To this end, in preliminary studies a thin-sheet method has been developed which allows combining the method of moments with analytic solutions for the electromagnetic field in the vicinity of electrically thin sheets. Additionally, it is possible by means of the formalism of the periodic method of moments to evaluate electromagnetic fields in the vicinity of periodic structures with high efficiency, as has been exemplified in own preliminary studies for the analogous case of resonating systems. Concerning the investigation of periodic materials it is the main goal to determine the electromagnetic shielding of layered carbon fiber composite materials at low frequencies. This would allow, for the first time, to properly take into account diffusion coupling through carbon fiber composite materials, as it is of great interest in the context of lightning protection of modern aircraft.In view of periodic geometries it is the main goal to model and efficiently calculate the electromagnetic shielding of surfaces with periodically positioned apertures and of periodic wire mesh. Again, it is the aim to first combine, within a flexible and general formalism, the thin-sheet method with analytic solutions. Corresponding analytic solutions related to aperture coupling can be developed and adapted on the basis of the Floquet-Lyapunov-Theory. For the analysis of periodic wire mesh it is the further goal to extend the existing formalism of the periodic method of moments, as given for isolated wire elements, to wire mesh and to efficiently evaluate the resulting mathematical expressions by means of periodic Greens functions. An implementation of this approach forms the general basis for the analysis of periodic geometries in the context of Electromagnetic Compatibility of Complex Systems, which otherwise can only be modeled on the basis of conventional numerical models with very high or unacceptable effort.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants