Conformable shields: Combining advantages of braids and semi-rigid tubing

The conformable shield design has several unique and desirable features. The simplest form of this shield consists of a conventional wire braid which has been dipped into a molten metal bath, thus filling the braid with additional metal. When applied over coax, twinax, or multiconductor cable cores, the resulting cable is surprisingly flexible and durable. The filled braid has no openings or seams and provides shielding effectiveness comparable to that of semi-rigid cables. In this paper, several conformable coax designs are examined and performance test results are presented. It will be seen that conformable shields fill the gap between braids and semi-rigid shields.