Novel High Power Microwave (HPM) Hardening Materials for Aircraft, Ground, & Space Systems

An affordable conformal coating technology that provides broad band electromagnetic immunity through high EMI shielding effectiveness and low electrical faying resistance will be developed for sensitive avionics enclosures, and for shelters. The coating chemistry and application procedure will insure for simplicity with a scalable dispensation process that is production friendly. The conformal shielding coating will exhibit an average shielding effectiveness greater than 60 db over a 100 MHz to over 20 GHz range with attenuation levels greatly exceeding 80db at specific frequency spectra. The solution will leverage from current particulate coating developments at MII combined with the inclusion of nano-based metallic fillers. The synergistic effect of tailoring particulate morphology combined with interstitial nano-filling results in a coating system that is tunable to specific system needs. This has been demonstrated through preliminary shielding effectiveness tests and cursory environmental testing. This program will further develop this technology and refine performance to meet specific DoD system requirements. Analysis combined with laboratory measurements will be used for optimization. Application technologies will focus on spray deposition, demonstration of dip processing, and integration with prepreg composite lamina as alternative approaches. Phase 1 will develop performance data that will establish the production path carried into Phase 2.