1.6.3 Shielding
If employing the countermeasures listed in Section 1.6.2 cannot solve EMI problems, the solution may be
shielding of the noise source. In the real world, shields arenot perfect. The shielding effectiveness you can
expectfroma solidmetal shieldis somewherein theorderof30-40dB.Ifa thinPCB
copperlayer isusedasa
shield,thesevaluescanbeevenlower.Perforationoftheshieldwillalsoloweritseffectiveness.
Beawareofthenegativeeffectsthatholesintheshieldcanhaveonshieldingeffectiveness.Lengthyslotsmight
eventurnashieldintoaradiatingslotantenna.
Therefore,apropershieldhastobetightlyclosedandverywell
connectedtothecircuitboard.
1.6.3.1 Feed through Capacitors
Thebasicconceptofshieldingisthatametalboxwillterminateallelectricalfieldsonitssurface.Inpracticewe
havetheproblemthatweneedtoroutesomesignalsfrominside
tooutsideofthisbox.
Signal Layers
Supply Ground Layer (noisy)
Shield (free of supply currents)
Signal line leaving box
Feed through Capacitor
Figure 19: Ideal shielding
The proposed setup for such a system is shown in Figure 19. A feed through capacitor removes all high
frequencycontent fromtheoutgoing signal line.It’s important tonote that anyconductor projectingthrough
theshieldingboxissubjecttopickingupnoiseinsideandre-radiatingitoutside,regardlessof
theactualsignalit
is intended to carry. Therefore, also DC lines (e.g. the power supply) should be filtered with feed through
capacitors. When selecting feed through capacitors, it’s important to choose components with appropriate
frequency behavior.As with the ordinary capacitors, small value types will show better attenuationat high
frequencies (see Figure 20). For the GPS frequency band the 470pF capacitor is the optimum choice of the
MurataNFM21Cseries.
GPSModules-SystemIntegrationManual(SIM)(incl.ReferenceDesign) GPSFundamentals
GPS.G4-MS4-05007-A1
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