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An anechoic chamber ( an-echoic meaning "non-reflective" or "without echoes") is a room designed to stop reflections or echoes of either sound or electromagnetic waves. They are also often isolated from energy entering from their surroundings. This combination means that a person or detector exclusively hears direct sounds (no reverberation sounds), in effect simulating being outside in a free field.
Anechoic chambers, a term coined by American acoustics expert Leo Beranek, were initially exclusively used to refer to acoustic anechoic chambers. Recently, the term has been extended to other radio frequency (RF) and sonar anechoic chambers, which eliminate reflection and external noise caused by electromagnetic waves.
Anechoic chambers range from small compartments the size of household to ones as large as . The size of the chamber depends on the size of the objects and frequency ranges being tested.
Anechoic chambers are commonly used in acoustics to conduct experiments in nominally "free field" conditions, free field meaning that there are no reflected signals. All sound energy will be traveling away from the source with almost none reflected back. Common anechoic chamber experiments include measuring the transfer function of a loudspeaker or the directivity of noise radiation from industrial machinery. In general, the interior of an anechoic chamber can be very quiet, with typical noise levels in the 10–20 Decibel range. In 2005, the best anechoic chamber measured at −9.4 dBA. In 2015, an anechoic chamber on the campus of Microsoft broke the world record with a measurement of −20.6 dBA. The human ear can typically detect sounds above 0 dBA, so a human in such a chamber would perceive the surroundings as devoid of sound. Anecdotally, some people may not like such silence and can become disoriented.
The mechanism by which anechoic chambers minimize the reflection of sound waves impinging onto their walls is as follows: In the included figure, an incident sound wave I is about to impinge onto a wall of an anechoic chamber. This wall is composed of a series of wedges W with height H. After the impingement, the incident wave I is reflected as a series of waves R which in turn "bounce up-and-down" in the gap of air A (bounded by dotted lines) between the wedges W. Such bouncing may produce (at least temporarily) a standing wave pattern in A. During this process, the acoustic energy of the waves R gets dissipated via the air's molecular viscosity, in particular near the corner C. In addition, with the use of foam materials to fabricate the wedges, another dissipation mechanism happens during the wave/wall interactions. As a result, the component of the reflected waves R along the direction of I that escapes the gaps A (and goes back to the source of sound), denoted R', is notably reduced. Even though this explanation is two-dimensional, it is representative and applicable to the actual three-dimensional wedge structures used in anechoic chambers.
In contrast, semi-anechoic or hemi-anechoic chambers have a solid floor that acts as a work surface for supporting heavy items, such as cars, washing machines, or industrial machinery, which could not be supported by the mesh grille in a full anechoic chamber. are often semi-anechoic.
The distinction between "semi-anechoic" and "hemi-anechoic" is unclear. In some uses they are synonyms, or only one term is used. Other uses distinguish one as having an ideally reflective floor (creating free-field conditions with a single reflective surface) and the other as simply having a flat untreated floor. Still other uses distinguish them by size and performance, with one being likely an existing room retrofitted with acoustic treatment, and the other a purpose-built room which is likely larger and has better anechoic performance.
Performance expectations (gain, efficiency, pattern characteristics, etc.) constitute primary challenges in designing stand alone or embedded antennas. Designs are becoming ever more complex with a single device incorporating multiple technologies such as cellular network, WiFi, Bluetooth, LTE, MIMO, RFID and GPS.
RF anechoic chambers are normally designed to meet the electrical requirements of one or more accredited Standardization. For example, the aircraft industry may test equipment for aircraft according to company specifications or military specifications such as MIL-STD 461E. Once built, are performed during commissioning to verify that the standard(s) are in fact met. Provided they are, a certificate will be issued to that effect. The chamber will need to be periodically retested.
A careful assessment may be required as to whether the test equipment (as opposed to the equipment under test) should be placed inside or outside the chamber. Typically most of it is located in a separate screened room attached to the main test chamber, in order to shield it from both external interference and from the radiation within the chamber. Mains power and test signal cabling into the test chamber require high quality filtering.
optical fiber cables are sometimes used for the signal cabling, as they are immune to ordinary RFI and also cause little reflection inside the chamber.
Personnel are not normally permitted inside the chamber during a measurement as this not only can cause unwanted reflections from the human anatomy but may also be a radiation hazard to the personnel concerned if tests are being performed at high RF powers. Such risks are from RF or non-ionizing radiation and not from the higher energy ionizing radiation.
As RAM is highly absorptive of RF radiation, incident radiation will generate heat within the RAM. If this cannot be dissipated adequately there is a risk that hot spots may develop and the RAM temperature may rise to the point of combustion. This can be a risk if a transmitting antenna inadvertently gets too close to the RAM. Even for quite modest transmitting power levels, high antenna gain antennas can concentrate the power sufficiently to cause high power flux near their . Although recently manufactured RAM is normally treated with a fire retardant to reduce such risks, they are difficult to eliminate.
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