SOLUTION
Parker Chomerics mechanical and application engineers, together with the customer’s engineering team, worked to design a model of the radar sensor housing, the RF shield and the radome to meet the customer’s stringent requirements.
It was determined that the housing could be either molded from Parker Chomerics PREMIER electrically conductive plastic, or, as in this case, traditional thermoplastic with an added electrically conductive coating on the inside of the housing.
The housing assembly design featured EMI shielding and thermal interface materials, an RF absorber, and a radome cover material suitable for laser welding.
During the design process, a finite element analysis (FEA) simulation was conducted to predict the reacting force of the EMI gasket around the 6-pin connector, the EMI gasket around the RF shield during installation into the housing, and the reacting force of the dispensable thermal interface material (TIM) during and after its installation.
The engineering team had to ensure that the targeted dispense location of the TIM would not cause deformation and/or damage to the PCB/IC during and after assembly.
CONCLUSION
The combination of these materials met the extensive testing and trials by both Parker Chomerics direct customer and their end customer’s requirements.