Electromagnetic Hardened Composite Enclosures for Aircraft Systems

ABSTRACT: The use of electronic systems within a military aircraft requires shielded enclosures to mitigate radio frequency (RF) interference from external electric equipment. The proposed approach is to reduce the weight of the shielded enclosure while maintaining the shielding effectiveness of this enclosure by using a composite material. This engineering specialty has been successfully demonstrated in the external enclosures of military systems where extreme radio frequency environments are present. The proposed approach leverages decades of experience in this field, providing a proven design methodology to solve applications of lightweight composite materials with effective RF shielding. BENEFIT: The proposed approach has applicability for a wide range of military and industrial applications where electronic systems must function in a RF environment. The proposed approaches can either be retrofitted into existing systems, or implemented into new systems reducing the weight of the overall system.