Novel Integral Nanofiber Coatings for High Modulus Compression Molded Electronics Enclosures

The current Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) primes including Northrop Grumman and Lockheed are now pursuing weight reduction through the redesign and manufacture of electronics enclosures. To date many approaches have been taken for the redesign of these enclosures including using processes such as hand lay up, compression molded chopped fiber prepreg and VARTM, all with carbon nanofiber reinforcements. In this Phase I program, Infoscitex Corporation (IST) proposes to enhance the traditional attenuation based EMI shielding mechanisms using reflection shielding by applying novel architecture nanofiber surface layers to these enclosure designs. This combination of approaches will enable greater EMI shielding and achieve up to 60dB in shielding over the 1-20 GHz frequency band. IST’s synergistic attenuation and reflection EMI shielding solution will be implemented in one cost effective composite manufacturing process and save our team partner, Northrop Grumman, and the JSF program over 50% on weight for each of these enclosures. The Phase I will establish the materials, the manufacturing methods, the enclosure design and culminate with the fabrication of a demonstration enclosure. The Phase II program will develop a series of enclosure designs and initiate the qualification process for production implementation with our commercialization team partners.