700

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTROMAGNETIC COMPATIBILITY, VOL. 53, NO. 3, AUGUST 2011

Ultrathin and Flexible Screen-Printed Metasurfaces

for EMI Shielding Applications
Lin Biao Wang, Student Member, IEEE, Kye Yak See, Senior Member, IEEE, Jun Wu Zhang, Budiman Salam,
and Albert Chee Wai Lu, Member, IEEE

AbstractAn ultrathin, lightweight, and flexible metasurface for

band-stop electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding purpose
has been designed and fabricated using screen-printing technology. Using a 1.8 GHz band-stop EMI shield as a design example, a
prototype of a screen-printed metasurface has been validated using
measured and numerically computed results. Hence, screen printing can be an attractive option for flexible and lightweight shields
that can be easily applied on the walls and windows of a room to
block specific wireless communication band so as to protect critical
electronics instruments from possible EMI.
Index TermsElectromagnetic interference (EMI), electromagnetic shielding, metasurfaces, screen printing.

I. INTRODUCTION
UE to the exponential growth of wireless communication, portable communication devices are common sights
in our daily life. However, with the heavy reliance on wireless
communications, an increasing number of base stations are expected to ensure good wireless coverage. Such a trend has posed
potential electromagnetic interference (EMI) risk or radiation
hazards for some buildings. For examples, the intensive care
unit in a hospital, where life-supporting medical instrument is
housed and storage space in a warehouse, where explosive material or flammable liquid is stored [1][3]. The conventional
approach to block intentional wireless communication is to install a solid metallic shielded enclosure. However, this approach
can be costly and labor intensive. In addition, structural loading
to existing building has to be considered due to the weight of
the shielded enclosure [4]. Inspired by the properties of metasurfaces, this paper explores the use of a screen-printing technique
to realize band-stop EMI shield that can be easily applied as
wallpaper on the walls of a room without the structural loading
issue to existing architecture.
Frequency selective surface (FSS) has been studied extensively since the 1960s. It was deployed in the design of randomes, reflectors, and reflect-array lenses, mostly for defense
applications [5], [6]. Recent work and study in 2-D metama-

Manuscript received November 29, 2010; revised May 13, 2011; accepted
June 2, 2011. Date of publication July 14, 2011; date of current version August
18, 2011.
L. B. Wang, K. Y. See, and J. W. Zhang are with the School
of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 639798 Singapore (e-mail: wang0474@e.ntu.edu.sg; ekysee@ntu.edu.sg;
zhan0291@e.ntu.edu.sg).
B. Salam and A. C. W. Lu are with the Large Area Processing Program, Singapore Institute of Manufacturing, 638075 Singapore (e-mail:
budimans@SIMTech.a-star.edu.sg; cwlu@SIMTech.a-star.edu.sg).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TEMC.2011.2159509

terials, also known as metasurfaces or metafilms, have shown

stable resonant frequencies that are independent of the angle
of the incident wave [7][10]. Such properties are desirable for
large area frequency selective shielding, where the incident angle of an external EMI wave can be unknown. This property
has been well explained theoretically [11] and will not be repeated here. This paper extends the work done and realizes the
metasurfaces for practical EMI shielding applications. There are
various fabrication techniques to realize metasurfaces, usually
on rigid structure and limited to small area [12], [13]. Screen
printing is explored here as it has the ability to fabricate large
volume reel-to-reel printing, making it an attractive option for
EMI shielding that occupies a large surface area.
In this paper, the preliminary design of the metasurfaces with
band rejection characteristic begins with the use of the equivalent circuit model of an infinite array of Jerusalem crosses to
determine its frequency response for different geometrical parameters. The design is finalized through fine tuning the band
rejection frequency using a full-wave simulation tool. The finalized design is implemented by screen printing of a silver paste
onto a flexible polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate [14].
An ultrathin and flexible band-stop EMI shield prototype that
blocks the 1.8 GHz GSM band is fabricated with the screenprinting technology and its band rejection EMI shielding performance at 1.8 GHz is also demonstrated experimentally.
II. DESIGN OF BAND-STOP EMI SHIELD
A. Fabrication Process
PET is selected as the substrate for screen printing as it offers excellent flexibility and durability. The chosen PET has a
thickness h of 0.1 mm and dielectric constant r of 2.2. The
screen-printing process uses an ink blocking stencil, which defines the area to be patterned onto the substrate with conductive
silver paste. A circular disk of radius 130 mm is printed on the
substrate to characterize the electrical property of the coated
silver paste. Based on a four-point measurement technique [15],
the conductivity of the coated silver paste disk is found to be 2
106 S/m. The conductivity is lower than pure silver due to the
mixture of adhesive and slider powder in the silver paste. However, the conductivity is high enough for practical EMI shielding
applications. The thickness of the printed silver paste is found
to be 10 m with the help of post curing profile measurement.
As both the silver powder and adhesive are nonferrous materials, the relative permeability r will be unity. These electrical
and geometrical parameters will be used later in the full-wave
simulation analysis of the band-stop EMI shield.

0018-9375/$26.00 2011 IEEE

WANG et al.: ULTRATHIN AND FLEXIBLE SCREEN-PRINTED METASURFACES FOR EMI SHIELDING APPLICATIONS

701

where
G(p, w, , ) =
0.5(1 2 )2 [(1 ( 2/4))(C+ + C ) + 4 2 C+ C ]
(1 ( 2/4)) + 2 (1 + ( 2/2) ( 4/8))(C+ + C) + 2 6 C+ C

= sin
C = 
Fig. 1. Geometrical parameters of Jerusalem crosses and the equivalent circuit
model.

B. Band-Stop EMI Shield Design

As a first step, the band reject frequency of the shield has
to be determined. The Jerusalem crosses pattern is selected,
as it is more compact in design as compared to conventional
cross dipoles. The loaded ends of Jerusalem crosses offer an
additional degree of freedom to fine tune the final design to
achieve the desired band rejection frequency accurately. The
design procedure for the band-stop shield will be as follows.
1) Based on the equivalent circuit model for an infinite array
of Jerusalem crosses, the band rejection frequency due to
each critical geometrical parameter of Jerusalem crosses
will be studied.
2) Obtain the preliminary dimensions of the geometrical parameters of the unit cell so as to achieve the desired rejection band frequency.
3) Perform full-wave simulation on the preliminary designed
band-stop EMI shield and fine tune the critical geometrical parameters to achieve the desired band rejection frequency; and
4) Experimental validation of the fabricated band-stop EMI
shield.
The aforementioned design steps will be described in detail in the following section. Preliminary design through parametric study on the various critical geometrical dimensions of
Jerusalem crosses using a full-wave model and simulation can
be computationally prohibitive. Hence, the equivalent circuit
model of Jerusalem crosses will be used to obtain the preliminary design without heavy computational effort [16]. The equivalent circuit of an infinite array of Jerusalem crosses is described
in [17]. Fig. 1 shows the geometry parameters and equivalent
circuit model of an array of Jerusalem crosses.
Each Jerusalem cross unit cell exhibits both inductive and capacitive reactance when excited by an incident electric field. The
capacitance is due to the capacitive coupling between adjacent
crosses while the inductance is due to the straight conductors
of the cross. XL and BC are the normalized (with respect to
the free-space impedance) inductive reactance and capacitive
susceptance of the equivalent circuit model, respectively. XL
and BC are given as follows:
pcos
[G (p, w, , ) ln (sin)]

(3)

1
1 (2p sin /) (p cos /)2

4 (2w + s)
4l
F (p, s, , ) +
F (p, p l, , )
p
p

(4)

(5)

where p is the periodicity of the unit cell, w is the width of

the conductive strip, l is the length of the loaded ends of the
Jerusalem cross, s is the separation distance between adjacent
unit cells, is the wavelength of the incidence plane wave, and
is the angle of incidence between the plane wave and screen.
Equations (1)(5) are valid when f < c/p(1 + sin), where c is
the speed of light [18].
Once the equivalent circuit elements are found, the reflection
and transmission S-parameters S11 and S21 of the metasurface
can be evaluated with ABCD matrices as follows [19]:
S11 =

A+BC D
A+B+C +D

(6)

2(AD BC)
(7)
A+B+C +D
where A is 1, B is 0, C is the normalized admittance of the LC
branch, and D is 1.
XL is a function of its periodicity p, which is dependent on the
length of the cross and BC is a function of the conductor length
of the loaded ends l and the separation distance between adjacent
cells s. The geometrical parameters p and s are varied to extract
XL and BC , and then, S21 is computed. By performing the
parametric study on p and s, the preliminary design to obtain
a resonant frequency f 0 of around 1.8 GHz can be achieved
efficiently. By narrowing the range of p and s, we could proceed
with the use of full-wave modeling and simulation to further
fine tune the final design.
The suggested equivalent circuit model provides a quick estimation of f 0 . However, the analytical equations presented earlier do not include the substrate. It is expected that the presence
of the dielectric substrate shifts the f 0 downwards [20], [21].
The shift of f 0 is a function of the substrate thickness. For
the proposed screen-printed metasurface with substrate
on one

side, f 0 will shift by a factor between unity and (r + 1)/2
depending on the substrate thickness. For the given substrate
thickness (t = 0.1 mm), it has been shown in [5] that the shift
in f 0 is negligible as t (0.1 mm) < 0 /100 (1.7 mm), where 0
is the resonant wavelength of the structure.
S21 =

III. FULL-WAVE ANALYSIS OF DESIGN

XL = F (p, w, , )
=

BC =

w
2p

(2)

(1)

To accurately predict the resonant frequency of the rejection

band and its corresponding shielding performance, a full-wave

702

Fig. 2.
shield.

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTROMAGNETIC COMPATIBILITY, VOL. 53, NO. 3, AUGUST 2011

3-D EM simulation model to evaluate the SE of the band-stop EMI

simulator CST Microwave Studio, which is based on a finite

integration technique, is employed for the simulation [22]. The
3-D geometrical model to evaluate the performance of the bandstop EMI shield is depicted in Fig. 2. The model is constructed
to closely resemble the fabricated band-stop EMI shield and the
experimental validation setup.
To replicate as close to the measurement setup as possible,
the horn antennas are modeled, even if they requires extensive modeling and computational efforts. The dimension of the
whole solution domain is 350 mm 350 mm 1200 mm. In
the simulation, absorbing boundary conditions are enforced on
all the six faces of the defined volume. Both horn antennas are
placed at a distance of 300 mm away from the band-stop shield
in order to ensure that far-field criterion is met.
Two planes of symmetry are used, with one in the yz plane
and another in the xy plane. We take advantage of the planes
of symmetry to reduce the computational time. Nx , Ny , and Nz
denote the number of gridded cells in x-, y-, and z-axes, respectively. In the simulation model, the whole volume is discretized
into a Cartesian mesh of gridded cells. Nx , Ny , and Nz are 94,
96, and 273, respectively. The total number of cells is 2.4 million with the use of planes of symmetry. Adaptive nonuniform
meshed grids are used so that finer cells are distributed around
the band-stop shield for better solution accuracy. The maximum
and minimum grid cells are 6.7 and 0.0033 mm, respectively.
The substrate thickness (0.1 mm) and its electrical properties
(r = 2.2 and r = 1) as well as the silver paste thickness
(10 m) and its electrical properties ( = 2 106 S/m and r =
1) are taken into account for the simulation. With one horn antenna as the transmitting source and the other as the receiving
port, the transmission coefficient S 21 of the simulated model
is obtained. By obtaining S 21 with and without the band-stop
EMI shield, the shielding effectiveness (SE) of the shield can be
determined as follows [23]:
SEdB = S21, without shield S21, with shield

(8)

where S 21,without shield is the transmission coefficient without

the EMI shield and S 21,with shield is the transmission coefficient with the EMI shield. The simulated S 21 between the horn
antennas with and without the shield are shown in Fig. 3.

Fig. 3. Simulated S 2 1 between the horn antennas without and with the bandstop EMI shield.
TABLE I
GEOMETRICAL DIMENSIONS FOR THE FINAL FSS SHIELD

Fig. 4. Comparison of simulated S 2 1 for a free-standing band-stop Jerusalem

cross element being excited with an incident wave at different angles.

Through full-wave simulation, the geometrical dimensions

for the different parameters are fine-tuned to achieve the final
design. Table I shows the final geometrical dimensions of the
band-stop EMI shield. A strong resonant frequency at 1.8 GHz
is clearly observed with the designed band-stop EMI shield.
To check the impact of the angle of the incident wave on
the resonant frequency of the shield, simulations with incident
wave of various angles (0 , 20 , 40 , and 60 ) are carried out
for a free-standing band-stop shield. Fig. 4 shows the simulated
S 21 with an incident wave at various angles of incidence. The
results indicate that the resonant frequency of the shield is independent of the angle of the incident wave. It is important, as the

WANG et al.: ULTRATHIN AND FLEXIBLE SCREEN-PRINTED METASURFACES FOR EMI SHIELDING APPLICATIONS

Fig. 5.

Picture of fabricated ultrathin and flexible band-stop EMI shield.

Fig. 6.

Experimental setup for measuring SE of band-stop EMI shield.

band-stop frequency shall remain stable regardless of the direction of external EMI signal.
IV. RESULTS AND EXPERIMENTAL CHARACTERIZATION OF
BAND-STOP EMI SHIELD
Extending from the simulated case study, a prototype of the
band-stop EMI shield is fabricated. The geometrical dimensions
are the same as that given in Table I. The design is fabricated
using screen-printing technology. Fig. 5 shows the photograph
of the band-stop EMI shield fabricated. The size of the prototype
is 450 mm by 450 mm.
Due to the size of each Jerusalem cross, it is impossible to
measure the SE of the band-stop shield using the transmission
line test jig methods in the gigahertz range, as the cross-sectional
area of the test jig is much smaller than the dimension of the
Jerusalem cross to ensure TEM wave propagation [24]. Hence,
the measurement method proposed in [25] is adopted to measure
the SE of the band-stop shield. The measurement setup is shown
in Fig. 6. This measurement setup overcomes the edge contact
problem, as the fabricated prototype is ultrathin.
A pair of double-ridged waveguide horn antennas EMCO
3115 (118 GHz) is chosen to transmit and receive the EM
wave propagating across the band-stop shield for their direc-

703

Fig. 7. Measured S 2 1 between the horn antennas with and without the bandstop shield.

Fig. 8.
shield.

Comparison of simulated and measured SEs of the band-stop EMI

tivity and antenna gain. The receiving antenna is placed inside

a metallic enclosure while the transmitting antenna is placed
on top of it. A square aperture of size 350 mm by 350 mm is
inserted on the top of the box and RF absorbers are placed
around both antennas in the measurement setup so as to replicate as close as possible the full-wave 3-D simulation model.
The absorbers used have reflectivity of 20 dB from 30 MHz
to 18 GHz. The distance between each antenna and band-stop
EMI shield is 300 mm. The measured results are obtained by a
vector network analyzer (VNA), RS ZVB8 (300 kHz8 GHz).
Ports 1 and 2 of the VNA are connected to the horn antennas
for the S-parameters measurement. Fig. 7 shows the measured
S 21 between the antennas with and without the shield.
Through (8), measured and simulated SEs of the band-stop
shield are shown in Fig. 8. By comparing the results obtained
using simulation with that of measurement, good agreement
between them can be observed. The measured result shows that
SE of 28 dB at the rejection frequency of 1.8 GHz is achieved.
Using SE of 15 dB as benchmark, a rejection bandwidth of

704

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTROMAGNETIC COMPATIBILITY, VOL. 53, NO. 3, AUGUST 2011

200 MHz is achievable. This bandwidth is enough to effectively

attenuate the GSM 1800 transmission signals.
V. CONCLUSION
In this paper, we have realized a flexible and ultrathin metasurface using a screen-printing technique for band-stop EMI
shielding purposes. The band-stop frequency of the shield is
independent of the angle of the incident wave, making it very
suitable for band-stop EMI shielding applications. Good SE at
the rejection band is demonstrated through both measurement
and full-wave simulation. The use of a screen-printing technique
to fabricate this kind of EMI shield has proven to be a viable option for low cost and high-volume production of wallpaper-type
EMI shielding applications.
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Lin Biao Wang (S11) received the B.Eng. and

M.Sc. degrees in electrical and electronic engineering
from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore,
in 2006 and 2009, respectively, where he is currently
working toward the Ph.D. degree under the guidance
of Dr. See.
His research interests include electromagnetic
interference (EMI) reduction techniques, EMI/
electromagnetic compatibility modeling, and frequency selective shielding.

Kye Yak See (SM02) received the B.Eng. degree from the National University of Singapore,
Singapore, and the Ph.D. degree from Imperial College, London, U.K., in 1986 and 1997, respectively,
both in electrical engineering.
Between 1986 and 1991, he was with Singapore
Technologies Electronics Ltd. as the Head of Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) Centre. From 1991
to 1994, he held the position of Lead EMC Design
Engineer in ASTEC Custom Power, Singapore. He
is currently an Associate Professor in the School of
Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He also holds concurrent designations as the Head of the Circuits
and Systems Division and the Director of Electromagnetic Effects Research
Laboratory. His research interests include EMC design for power electronics,
high-speed signal integrity design, and EMC measurement techniques.
Dr. See is the Founding Chair of the IEEE Singapore EMC Chapter and a
Technical Assessor of Singapore Accreditation Council. He was also the Organizing Committee Chairs for the 2006 EMC Zurich Symposium and 2008 Asia
Pacific EMC Conference in Singapore. Since January 2011, he has been the
Technical Editor of the IEEE EMC Society Newsletter.

Jun Wu Zhang received the B.Eng.(Hons.) degree in

electrical and electronic engineering from Nanyang
Technological University (NTU), Singapore, where
he is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree.
His research interests include electromagnetic interference reduction techniques and RF-energy harvesting for low-power devices.

WANG et al.: ULTRATHIN AND FLEXIBLE SCREEN-PRINTED METASURFACES FOR EMI SHIELDING APPLICATIONS

Budiman Salam received the B.Eng.(Hons.) degree from the Institut Sains dan Teknologi Nasional,
Jakarta, Indonesia, and the Ph.D. degree from the
University of Greenwich, London, U.K., in 1996 and
2006, respectively.
He is currently a Research Scientist with the
Large Area Processing Program, Singapore Institute
of Manufacturing Technology, Singapore, a research
institute of the Agency for Science, Technology,
and Research. His research interests include large
area manufacturing and roll-to-roll patterning and
structuring.

705

Albert Chee Wai Lu (M98) received the

B.Eng.(Hons.) degree in electrical and electronic engineering and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Manchester Institute of
Science and Technology, Manchester, U.K., in 1994
and 1998, respectively.
He is currently the Program Manager and a Senior
Scientist with the Large Area Processing Program,
Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology,
Singapore, a research institute of the Agency for Science, Technology, and Research. He currently leads
a multidisciplinary research team on disruptive manufacturing processes, flexible substrates, and multifunctional integration for functional films and printed
electronics.
Dr. Lu was the recipient of the Lee Kuan Yew Award for Mathematics and
Science in Singapore and the Institution of Electrical Engineers Prize in U.K.