What is an Anechoic Chamber?

An Anechoic chamber is a special room used for testing electronic equipment under laboratory conditions. The room is a large box made of sheet metal designed to shield all radio signals from entering. The doors are fitted with special gaskets so that radio waves can't sneak in through the cracks. The floor has special tiles and the walls are lined with foam rubber pads and cones that are treated to absorb radio energy so that any signals transmitted inside the room cannot leave the room.

Because no signals can get in or out of the chamber, engineers can place equipment to be tested and receiving antennas inside it and be assured that any signals picked up by the antenna were generated by the equipment that he or she is testing. This equipment usually is placed on a wooden or plastic table because these materials do not reflect radio signals.

This is how engineers determine that one piece of equipment will not interfere with another. For example, no one wants a computer that makes his TV fuzzy, so a new computer design would be tested in an Anechoic chamber to determine that it does not emit signals that would interfere with a TV set.

So, if you become a test engineer, an Anechoic chamber is one of the many laboratory settings where you will work.

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