DEK and W. L. Gore & Associates combine their technologies to provide a lightweight, easily removable EMI board-level shield for wireless communication products. The snapShot shield, along with DEK’s Imaging Ball Placement technology, reportedly delivers excellent protection against EMI and overcomes limitations of metal cans. The shield is composed of a metallized, high temperature plastic material, and can be thermoformed to accommodate shaped or multi-cavity designs. This material weighs 80 to 90% less than a metal piece. The electrical insulating properties allow a lower profile shield design that minimizes the gap to the components, and reduces the minimum component-to-component spacing by 25 to 50%. Gore’s patented snap-attach mechanism secures the shield to the surface of the board. A series of holes around the shield perimeter snap over solder spheres placed and reflowed, providing both mechanical retention and electrical connection. In cavity-to-cavity testing, the shielding effectiveness has been shown to out-perform typical metal items and removable lid cans. The robust process begins with a printer depositing solder onto SMD pads that have been designed onto the PCB. A second printer places solder spheres into the solder on the PCB, using a stencil configured to the pattern. Once the board has been fully populated with components, it proceeds to reflow, where both components and spheres are soldered. Following reflow and inspection, the shield can be installed manually, semi or fully automatically using an odd-form cell. If needed, the shield can be removed and another shield installed easily, without de-soldering or re-soldering.
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