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Microchip Shielding.

What is the best practical way to shield a tiny microchip against external magnetic influences that affect its operation. The coat must be very compact as there is little room for a big magnetically shielding box.

Thanks,

Z.

  • Lets get a grip on this,

    what evidence makes you think the chip itself is picking up magnetic influences? ( because usually it is the wiring to the chip that is the antenna if you like... direct effects on silicon tend to be electrostatic or photonic, Never say never, but be sure what the problem is first.)

    what range of frequencies are you shielding against?

    how much attenuation do you think you need relative to the unmodified  to restore a satisfactory operation?

    Mike

  • Hello Mike, the new chip is under development. It will be used to receive and transmit data signals like blue tooth or wifi. It uses magnetic features to operate. Strong local magnetic influences will affect its correct operation.

    Z.

  • Interesting. do you have any technical info? Note that for traditional WiFi Blue tooth implementations etc , even though these are at 2,4 GHz the chip is small compared to wavelength, and the antennas are off chip and have to be considerably larger than it is. Similarly the near field magnetics used in credit card sized tokens pretty much have to be that size or at least an inch or 2 accross as the coil of wire pretty much runs round the periphery. The only really  small magnetic devices use ferrite loading and that is used in applications like pet-tagging, to make the injectable part.  (and at a different scale in the ferrite rod antenna in a tradition MW/LW radio, to avoid carrying many yards of antenna wire.)
    I do reiterate, that as soon as you add centimetres of pcb track or wire to a chip of a few mm extent, the voltages induced in the wire or the PCB normally dominate by orders of magnitude, and in practice direct pick up on-chip is almost never the main problem, so if it is that sensitive, the whole design will need great care.

    Mike.