Electromagnetic Shielding Performance Measurement for Braided-Shield Power Cables at Low Frequency Regimes

Abstract Although various measurement techniques have been applied to both qualitative and quantitative evaluation for the electromagnetic shielding performance of braided-shield power cables, the existing measurements cannot directly assess the low-frequency shielding performance (typically below 100 kHz) due to factors such as ground-loop effects and dynamic range problem in measurement. To solve these, an improved shield reduction factor method, based on gain (T/R) rather than scattering parameters, is proposed to evaluate the shielding performance of braided-shield power cables from 25 Hz to 1 MHz. In this work, we highlight the implementation of measurement setup to avoid the effects of ground-loop and stray electromagnetic field. Meanwhile, the test cell is simplified according to the definition of the shield reduction factor in order to obtain the gain (T/R) parameters, which can be used to calculate transfer impedance as well. From the measurements we present more intuitive evaluation of shielding behavior of braided-shield power cables at low frequency regimes, and showcase a detailed comparative discussion between transfer impedance and shield reduction factor. The proposed shield reduction factor method is expected to be a useful way for the evaluation of the low frequency shielding performance of braided-shield cables.