Impact of Air Gaps Between Microstrip Line and Magnetic Sheet on Near-Field Magnetic Shielding

This study experimentally analyzed the impact of air gaps between a magnetic sheet and a test board with a microstrip line, which is used to measure the near-field magnetic shielding effectiveness (NSE) of magnetic sheets made of metallic powder. To conduct the measurements, a material fixture equipped with a microstrip line to generate the near magnetic field, a rectangular loop probe, and an automatic probe positioning system capable of moving the loop probe along three axes were designed and fabricated. In addition, to systematically vary the thickness of the gaps, three paper spacers with a thickness of 0.11 mm per paper were used, and a 1.0 mm thick acrylic sheet, along with a specially designed material fixture, was used to press down the magnetic sheets during measurement. The magnetic shielding properties were measured and compared under various air gap conditions using a near-field magnetic loop probe. The effect of the gaps on the shielding performance of the magnetic sheets was quantitatively evaluated for three different magnetic sheets. The experimental results showed that as the gap thickness increased, NSE tended to improve up to a frequency around 1 GHz, while in the higher frequency range of a few GHz, NSE tended to decrease. The physical background of this phenomenon was explained using an equivalent magnetic circuit represented by reluctances for the structure, where the magnetic sheet is placed above the microstrip line with an air gap. This model helps to elucidate how the presence of the air gap affects the near-field magnetic shielding performance.