This week’s EYE on NPI (video) is super new and shiny – literally! This shiny gridded metal sheet is a great new idea from Würth Elektronik, it’s called ShielDIY and can be used to easily make custom RF shields or enclosures.

Würth Elektronik has created a do-it-yourself custom shielding cabinet kit, the ShielDIY. The ShielDIY kit is a fast prototyping solution for board level shielding cabinets. The kit is made up of nickel silver sheet with a thickness of 0.2 mm. The sheets feature lines carved every 5 mm for easy bending and cutting. To build a prototype, cut along the carved lines before bending to obtain the desired shape.

OK, this NPI is definitely one of those “OMG I didn’t know that existed, now I need it” type items. If you’re building sensitive or noisy projects, with lots of EMI from speakers, magnetics, motors, or RF, you probably know that a grounded metal cabinet will greatly help reduce electrical noise, you’re building a little Faraday cage around your electronics!

You see these on various products Digi-Key stocks, especially radio modules. For example, the Raspberry Pi 4 has a metal tin around the WiFi chip section to help reduce emissions. When you have a popular product, it’s easy to get a custom tin made. When you’re prototyping or testing, especially at the RF stage, something like the ShielDIY can help you speed the process by letting you try different tin shapes and sizes.

The metal sheet has grid slices every 5mm so as long as you’re cool with metric you should be able to make a wide range of sizes. Cut with metal snips or metal-friendly-scissors. You can then solder together the folded sides and solder the whole thing to the ground plane of your PCB. Super easy and effective!

If you do any RF testing, or RF work, you’ll definitely want to have a sheet of this stuff in your toolbox for less than a Tubman. You can order from Digi-Key today and have it tomorrow!

You can also check out the Würth Elektronik video below: