Radio Frequency Interference in Cell Phone

[eclorian]

I'm trying to find out what material might best block or limit radio frequency interference (or at least I think that's the problem, as I understand it).

I have a phone, the antenna inside the phone is next to a chip that controls a touch button. Whenever the phone boosts the signal to connect to the cellular network, the touch button goes crazy. I have seen a fix for this that includes two layers of duct tape and a piece of aluminum foil covering the chip, but I'm curious to know if there is a solution that will work better. Perhaps using a piece of copper instead of aluminum, or a type of tape that will work better than duct tape to cover the chip in question.

Thanks!

 

[davenn]

Hi there
welcome to PF is this a new phone ?
has it always had this problem?
is it still under warranty ?
is it under a contract ( if so that may automatically include warranty)

DAve

 

[eclorian]

It's not a new phone, and is no longer under any warranty. Through my own research I know the issue is in fact the antenna being too close to the chip that controls the touch button. The solution I found was to place a small piece of duct tape over the chip, then a piece of aluminum foil, followed by another piece of duct tape. This appears to work just fine, but I'm rarely satisfied with a fix that I feel may benefit from some small changes. So essentially, I want to make sure when I cover this chip, I won't have to go back and adjust it later.

That said, I'm not very familiar with electronic interference and what materials might block it best. For the tape portion, I wonder if there is something that may be more effective than duct tape, something that will help create some sort of shielding, in addition to a flexible piece of metal that might assist. For instance, many types of wiring employ shielding to block out interference, from coax to network cables. I'm just trying to find the most effective way to create shielding around that chip.

 

[berkeman]

I'm trying to find out what material might best block or limit radio frequency interference (or at least I think that's the problem, as I understand it).

I have a phone, the antenna inside the phone is next to a chip that controls a touch button. Whenever the phone boosts the signal to connect to the cellular network, the touch button goes crazy. I have seen a fix for this that includes two layers of duct tape and a piece of aluminum foil covering the chip, but I'm curious to know if there is a solution that will work better. Perhaps using a piece of copper instead of aluminum, or a type of tape that will work better than duct tape to cover the chip in question.

Thanks!

It's not a new phone, and is no longer under any warranty. Through my own research I know the issue is in fact the antenna being too close to the chip that controls the touch button. The solution I found was to place a small piece of duct tape over the chip, then a piece of aluminum foil, followed by another piece of duct tape. This appears to work just fine, but I'm rarely satisfied with a fix that I feel may benefit from some small changes. So essentially, I want to make sure when I cover this chip, I won't have to go back and adjust it later.

That said, I'm not very familiar with electronic interference and what materials might block it best. For the tape portion, I wonder if there is something that may be more effective than duct tape, something that will help create some sort of shielding, in addition to a flexible piece of metal that might assist. For instance, many types of wiring employ shielding to block out interference, from coax to network cables. I'm just trying to find the most effective way to create shielding around that chip.

If that fix works, go with it. The only potential improvement would be to ground the shield to the circuit board's ground. But without a schematic and PCB layout information, it would be difficult to find a ground to connect to. If you did want to connect the shield to ground, you would use copper tape instead of aluminum foil, since you can't solder to aluminum foil.