WaveZero Announces Over Seven Years Providing Form/Met® For Medical Electronics

Durable, Flexible Form/Met Provides Risk Reduction and Elimination of Design Compromise

August 15, 2008, Sunnyvale, CA — WaveZero, a leader in EMI/RFI/ESD shielding solutions, announced today its achievement of over seven successful years of providing trusted expert design assistance and its comprehensive line of designed-in Form/Met® medical electronics shielding products.

Form/Met® shielding solutions include Printed Circuit Board-Level, Fence & Lid, and Enclosure Level shielding which are provided to leading medical equipment OEMs along with assembly and integration instructions for contract manufacturing partners. These cost-effective shielding alternatives have helped customers reduce their risks of recall and non-compliance by accommodating any board or system configuration. WaveZero products protect from radiated emissions both inside and outside medical devices, providing immunity and allowing engineers to optimize board design for the best results.

As electronic devices have more functionality incorporated into smaller and smaller form factors, board layout is increasing in complexity, and designers have less space in which to work. These challenges result in the need to create additional grounding points to help eliminate noise, reflections, and other associated EMI phenomena that can compromise device performance. The implications of recall or non-compliance loom large in every engineer's mind.

Form/Met® EMI suppression products are custom created by a patented process of thermoforming and die cutting a lightweight plastic substrate and then metalizing the substrate with a pure metal layer or combinations of layers to make the shield conductive. Form/Met® Board-Level and Fence & Lid shielding can be customized to fit a desired PCB and component layout to satisfy the customer's board/system level EMI shielding needs. Customers can also use Form/Met® Enclosure Level shields as an alternative or additional means of shielding their device, making Form/Met® the most flexible electromagnetic shielding solution available. Form/Met® is ideal for complex board/component layouts or for situations where reducing product weight by eliminating traditional metal shielding solutions is extremely important.

At the board level, one Form/Met® shield with multi-compartments can replace many separate metal cans, accommodating even the most complex shielding needs. At the enclosure level, for EMI protection, most people are using metal shields or conductively painted enclosures, but metal is heavy and often impractical and conductive paint has been proven to chip, flake, and fail due to exposure to heat and humidity. The metalization layers applied to Form/Met® are proven to be more durable in 85/85 (85oC and 85% relative humidity) testing than paint. In addition, Form/Met® shields are 20% the weight of metal. Turnaround times for Form/Met® prototypes are short (2 - 4 weeks in most cases) and prototyping and production is highly economical and scalable.

By using WaveZero Form/Met® enclosure shielding to shield an entire board or system - not just the components that are radiating emissions, but those that are mission critical to protect from susceptibility to outside emissions - customers can guard against unforeseen external interference that can cause medical devices to malfunction and plays an important role in complying with IEC6061-1 IEC standards. All Form/Met® EMI Shields are environmentally friendly and IEC Standard 60601-1-2, UL2601-1, RoHS, and WEEE compliant. This compliance ensures Form/Met meets both the international EMC standard for medical devices as well as FDA requirements and government environmental regulations.

About WaveZero, Inc.
WaveZero, Inc. specializes in custom EMC shielding solutions for medical and similar devices. Its line of patented Form/Met products and DeepCoat vacuum metallization service are designed and optimized specifically to meet the needs of medical device manufacturing. WaveZero is a US operating subsidiary of Block Shield Corporation, a publicly traded company on the London Stock Exchange AIM. For more information, visit http://www.wavezero.com or call 408 830-5100.

Contact:
Catherine van Zuylen
(408) 702-1800
moreinfo@wavezero.com

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