Comparison of electromagnetic shielding effectiveness of conductive single jersey fabrics with coaxial transmission line and free space measurement techniques

The aim of this study is to investigate the electromagnetic shielding effectiveness (EMSE) of thin and lightweight knitted fabrics that are suitable for casual wear like t-shirts. For the purpose of having a low production cost, metal/cotton conductive composite yarns are produced by a yarn doubling technique, involving stainless steel wires (35 μm, 50 μm) or copper wires (50 μm, 70 μm) and Ne30/1, Ne40/1, Ne60/2, Ne80/2 count cotton yarns. Single jersey fabrics are knitted on an E20 circular knitting machine with the same machine settings. Coaxial transmission line and free space measurement (by using an anechoic chamber) techniques are used for the EMSE measurements in the frequency range of 100 MHz–1.5 GHz and 1 GHz–18 GHz respectively. The free space measurement technique test results reveal that single jersey knitted fabrics have EMSE ability for the electric field polarization in the same direction as the main direction of the conductive metal wires in the fabric. It is observed that all single jersey fabric structures have more than 7 dB (80% or better) EMSE for GSM-850 and GSM-900 cellular phone communication bands according to coaxial transmission line equipment test results. SNK test results of both test methods reveal that, while 100% cotton fabrics do not have EMSE ability, cotton yarn count is highly significant on the EMSE of single jersey fabrics with conductive composite yarns. Fabrics with two-ply fine cotton yarns (Ne60/2 and Ne80/2) have higher EMSE values than the fabrics with one-ply cotton yarn of the same yarn count (Ne30/1 and Ne40/1).