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Faraday cage
A Faraday cage or Faraday shield is an enclosure used to
block electromagnetic fields. A Faraday shield may be formed by
a continuous covering of conductive material, or in the case of a
Faraday cage, by a mesh of such materials. Faraday cages are
named after scientist Michael Faraday, who invented them in
1836.[1]

A Faraday cage operates because an external electrical field

causes the electric charges within the cage's conducting material
to be distributed so that they cancel the field's effect in the cage's
interior. This phenomenon is used to protect sensitive electronic
equipment (for example RF receivers) from external radio
frequency interference (RFI) often during testing or alignment of
the device. Faraday cages are also used to enclose devices that
produce RFI, such as radio transmitters, to prevent their radio
waves from interfering with nearby sensitive equipment. They Faraday cage demonstration on
are also used to protect people and equipment against actual volunteers in the Palais de la
electric currents such as lightning strikes and electrostatic Découverte in Paris
discharges, since the enclosing cage conducts current around the
outside of the enclosed space and none passes through the
interior.

Faraday cages cannot block stable or slowly varying magnetic

fields, such as the Earth's magnetic field (a compass will still
work inside). To a large degree, though, they shield the interior
from external electromagnetic radiation if the conductor is thick
enough and any holes are significantly smaller than the
wavelength of the radiation. For example, certain computer
forensic test procedures of electronic systems that require an
environment free of electromagnetic interference can be carried
out within a screened room. These rooms are spaces that are
completely enclosed by one or more layers of a fine metal mesh
or perforated sheet metal. The metal layers are grounded to
dissipate any electric currents generated from external or
internal electromagnetic fields, and thus they block a large
amount of the electromagnetic interference. See also
electromagnetic shielding. They provide less attenuation of EMI shielding around an MRI
outgoing transmissions than incoming: they can block EMP machine room
waves from natural phenomena very effectively, but a tracking
device, especially in upper frequencies, may be able to penetrate
from within the cage (e.g., some cell phones operate at various radio frequencies so while one cell
phone may not work, another one will).

The reception or transmission of radio waves, a form of electromagnetic radiation, to or from an

antenna within a Faraday cage is heavily attenuated or blocked by the cage; however, a Faraday cage
has varied attenuation depending on wave form, frequency or distance from receiver/transmitter,
and receiver/transmitter power. Near-field high-powered frequency transmissions like HF RFID are
more likely to penetrate. Solid cages generally attenuate fields over a broader range of frequencies
than mesh cages.

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Contents
History
Operation
Continuous
Interior charges
Exterior fields
Faraday cage
Examples
See also Faraday shield at a power plant in
Heimbach, Germany
References
External links

History
In 1836, Michael Faraday observed that the excess charge on a
charged conductor resided only on its exterior and had no
influence on anything enclosed within it. To demonstrate this
fact, he built a room coated with metal foil and allowed high-
voltage discharges from an electrostatic generator to strike the
outside of the room. He used an electroscope to show that there
was no electric charge present on the inside of the room's walls.

Although this cage effect has been attributed to Michael Faraday bags are a type of Faraday
Faraday's famous ice pail experiments performed in 1843, it was cage made of flexible metallic fabric.
Benjamin Franklin in 1755 who observed the effect by lowering They are typically used to block
an uncharged cork ball suspended on a silk thread through an remote wiping or alteration of
opening in an electrically charged metal can. In his words, "the wireless devices recovered in
cork was not attracted to the inside of the can as it would have criminal investigations, but may also
be used by the general public to
been to the outside, and though it touched the bottom, yet when
protect against data theft or to
drawn out it was not found to be electrified (charged) by that
enhance digital privacy.
touch, as it would have been by touching the outside. The fact is
singular." Franklin had discovered the behavior of what we now
refer to as a Faraday cage or shield (based on Faraday's later
experiments which duplicated Franklin's cork and can).[2]

Additionally, in 1754 the Abbe Nollet published an early account

of an effect attributable to the cage effect in his Leçons de
physique expérimentale.[3]

Operation
Video of a Faraday cage shielding a
Continuous man from electricity

A continuous Faraday shield is a hollow conductor. Externally or

internally applied electromagnetic fields produce forces on the charge carriers (usually electrons)
within the conductor; the charges are redistributed accordingly due to electrostatic induction. The
redistributed charges greatly reduce the voltage within the surface, to an extent depending on the
capacitance; however, full cancellation does not occur.[4]
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Interior charges

If a charge is placed inside an ungrounded Faraday

cage, the internal face of the cage becomes charged (in
the same manner described for an external charge) to
prevent the existence of a field inside the body of the
cage; however, this charging of the inner face re-
distributes the charges in the body of the cage. This
charges the outer face of the cage with a charge equal
in sign and magnitude to the one placed inside the Animation showing how a Faraday cage (box)
works. When an external electrical field (arrows)
cage. Let's denote this charge quantity as Q. Since the
is applied, the electrons (little balls) in the metal
internal charge and the inner face cancel each other
move to the left side of the cage, giving it a
out (i.e., the charge distribution on the inner surface
negative charge, while the remaining unbalanced
produces a static electric field that's exactly the charge of the nuclei give the right side a positive
opposite of what's produced by the internal charge, charge. These induced charges create an
hence the net charge, net dipole moment, etc., are all opposing electric field that cancels the external
zero), the spread of charges on the outer face is not electric field throughout the box.
affected by the position of the internal charge inside
the cage, but rather determined by the shape of outer
face. So for all intents and purposes, the cage generates the same static electric field that it would
generate if it were simply charged with Q. However, note that the same is not true for electromagnetic
waves.

If the cage is grounded, the excess charges will be neutralized as the ground connection creates an
equipotential bonding between the outside of the cage and the environment, so there is no voltage
between them and therefore also no field. The inner face and the inner charge will remain the same
so the field is kept inside.

Exterior fields

Effectiveness of shielding of a static electric field is largely independent of the geometry of the
conductive material; however, static magnetic fields can penetrate the shield completely.

In the case of a varying electromagnetic fields, the faster the variations are (i.e., the higher the
frequencies), the better the material resists magnetic field penetration. In this case the shielding also
depends on the electrical conductivity, the magnetic properties of the conductive materials used in
the cages, as well as their thicknesses.

A good idea of the effectiveness of a Faraday shield can be obtained from considerations of skin
depth. With skin depth, the current flowing is mostly in the surface, and decays exponentially with
depth through the material. Because a Faraday shield has finite thickness, this determines how well
the shield works; a thicker shield can attenuate electromagnetic fields better, and to a lower
frequency.

Faraday cage

Faraday cages are Faraday shields which have holes in them and are therefore more complex to
analyze. Whereas continuous shields essentially attenuate all wavelengths shorter than the skin
depth, the holes in a cage may permit shorter wavelengths to pass through or set up "evanescent
fields" (oscillating fields that do not propagate as EM waves) just beneath the surface. The shorter the
wavelength, the better it passes through a mesh of given size. Thus to work well at short wavelengths
(i.e., high frequencies), the holes in the cage must be smaller than the wavelength of the incident
wave. Faraday cages may therefore be thought of as high pass filters.

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Examples
Faraday cages are routinely used in
analytical chemistry to reduce noise while
making sensitive measurements.
Faraday cages, more specifically dual
paired seam Faraday bags, are often used
in digital forensics to prevent remote wiping
and alteration of criminal digital evidence.
The U.S. and NATO Tempest standards,
and similar standards in other countries,
include Faraday cages as part of a broader
effort to provide emission security for
computers.
Automobile and airplane passenger
compartments are essentially Faraday
cages, protecting passengers from electric
charges, such as lightning
Electronic components in automobiles and
aircraft utilize Faraday cages to protect Skin depth vs. frequency for some materials at room
signals from interference. Sensitive temperature, red vertical line denotes 50 Hz frequency:
components may include wireless door Mn–Zn – magnetically soft ferrite
locks, navigation/GPS systems, and lane Al – metallic aluminum
departure warning systems. Faraday cages
and shields are also critical to vehicle Cu – metallic copper
infotainment systems (e.g. radio, Wi-Fi, steel 410 – magnetic stainless steel
and GPS display units), which may be
designed with the capability to function as Fe–Si – grain-oriented electrical steel
critical circuits in emergency situations. [5] Fe–Ni – high-permeability permalloy (80%Ni–
[6]
20%Fe)
A booster bag (shopping bag lined with
aluminium foil) acts as a Faraday cage. It
is often used by shoplifters to steal RFID-tagged items.[7]
Similar containers are used to resist RFID skimming.
Elevators and other rooms with metallic conducting frames
and walls simulate a Faraday cage effect, leading to a loss of
signal and "dead zones" for users of cellular phones, radios,
and other electronic devices that require external
electromagnetic signals. During training, firefighters, and
other first responders are cautioned that their two-way radios
will probably not work inside elevators and to make SLC-40 with SpaceX Falcon 9
allowances for that. Small, physical Faraday cages are used launch infrastructure. The four
by electronics engineers during equipment testing to simulate towers surrounding the rocket are
such an environment to make sure that the device gracefully lightning arresters, acting like a
handles these conditions. giant Faraday cage

Properly designed conductive clothing can also form a

protective Faraday cage. Some electrical linemen wear
Faraday suits, which allow them to work on live, high-voltage power lines without risk of
electrocution. The suit prevents electric current from flowing through the body, and has no
theoretical voltage limit. Linemen have successfully worked even the highest voltage
(Kazakhstan's Ekibastuz–Kokshetau line 1150 kV) lines safely.
Austin Richards, a physicist in California, created a metal Faraday suit in 1997 that protects
him from tesla coil discharges. In 1998, he named the character in the suit Doctor MegaVolt
and has performed all over the world and at Burning Man nine different years.
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The scan room of a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine is designed as a Faraday cage.
This prevents external RF (radio frequency) signals from being added to data collected from the
patient, which would affect the resulting image. Radiographers are trained to identify the
characteristic artifacts created on images should the Faraday cage be damaged during a
thunderstorm.
A microwave oven utilizes a Faraday cage, which can be partly seen covering the transparent
window, to contain the electromagnetic energy within the oven and to shield the exterior from
radiation.
Plastic bags that are impregnated with metal are used to enclose electronic toll collection devices
whenever tolls should not be charged to those devices, such as during transit or when the user is
paying cash.
The shield of a screened cable, such as USB cables or the coaxial cable used for cable
television, protects the internal conductors from external electrical noise and prevents the RF
signals from leaking out.
Prisons have reasons to block both incoming and outgoing calls by prisoners.[8][9]

See also
Anechoic chamber
Anti-static bag
Conductive textile
Foil hat
Gauss's law
Mobile phone jammer
Mu-metal
Mylar blanket

References
1. "Michael Faraday" (https://web.archive.org/web/20060508023038/http://au.encarta.msn.com/ency
clopedia_761577227/Faraday_Michael.html). Encarta. Archived from the original (http://au.encart
a.msn.com/encyclopedia_761577227/faraday_michael.html) on 8 May 2006. Retrieved
20 November 2008.
2. J. D. Krauss, Electromagnetics, 4Ed, McGraw-Hill, 1992, ISBN 0-07-035621-1
3. Mascart, Éleuthère Élie Nicolas (1876). Traité d'électricité statique (https://archive.org/details/trait
dlectricit02mascgoog). G. Masson. p. 95 (https://archive.org/details/traitdlectricit02mascgoog/pag
e/n111). "Faraday Cage Nollet."
4. https://people.maths.ox.ac.uk/trefethen/chapman_hewett_trefethen.pdf Mathematics of the
Faraday Cage- S. Jonathan Chapman David P. Hewett Lloyd N. Trefethen
5. "Understanding EMI/RFI Shielding to Manage Interference" (https://ceptech.net/understanding-e
mi-rfi-shielding-to-manage-interference/). Ceptech. Retrieved 2020-04-23.
6. "Reliability Becomes The Top Concern In Automotive" (https://passive-components.eu/reliability-b
ecomes-the-top-concern-in-automotive/). Passive Components Blog. 2019-02-12. Retrieved
2020-04-23.
7. Hamill, Sean (22 December 2008). "As Economy Dips, Arrests for Shoplifting Soar" (https://www.
nytimes.com/2008/12/23/us/23shoplift.html). The New York Times. Retrieved 12 August 2009.
8. Mark Prose. "Imperfect System". AARP Magazine. No. April / May 2020. p. 6. "with a Faraday
shield would render the phones' transmitting and receiving functions useless"
9. "REDACTED FOR PUBLIC INSPECTION: Contraband phone task force status report" (https://ap
i.ctia.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Contraband-Phone-Task-Force-Status-Report-Combined.p
df) (PDF). April 26, 2019.

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External links
Faraday Cage Protects from 100,000 V :: Physikshow Uni Bonn (https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=mUWxYesR5Wo)
Notes from physics lecture on Faraday cages (http://www.pa.msu.edu/~duxbury/courses/phy294
H/lectures/lecture6/lecture6.html) from Michigan State University
Michael Faraday: The Invention of Faraday Cage (http://www.juliantrubin.com/bigten/faradaycage
experiments.html) background and related experiment
Top Gear's Richard Hammond is protected from 600,000 V by a car (a Faraday Cage). (https://we
b.archive.org/web/20091130062046/http://www.topgear.com/uk/videos/car-lightning)
Top Gear's Richard Hammond as a human lightning rod – protected by a Voltrex Suit (https://ww
w.youtube.com/watch?v=SSV1ocCEOdY)
The Faraday Cage: What Is It? How Does It Work? (http://www.gamry.com/application-notes/instr
umentation/faraday-cage)

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