What is the purpose of RF-shielding?

Purpose: To prevent interfering RF-waves from entering or leaving the scanner room. In this regard, the room must be shielded by an RF enclosure such as a Faraday Cage.

Radiofrequency (RF) shielding of an MR scanner is mandatory and serves two functions: 1) to prevent extraneous electromagnetic radiation from contaminating/distorting the MR signal, and 2) to prevent electromagnetic radiation generated by the MR scanner from causing interference in nearby medical devices.

The frequencies of different strength MRI scanners overlap with those used by various private and commercial communication devices. (As a point of reference, FM radio occupies the band from 88-108 MHz). If your scanner happens to be sited next to a broadcast TV station or home with a ham radio enthusiast, you may be in trouble.  But this is rare.  The most common form of RF interference comes from noise generated from nearby electrical equipment (transformers, motors, pumps) or electronic devices (computers, pulse oximeters, cardiac monitors). As a rule, most manufacturers require that the magnet room to have at least 100dB of RF attenuation at the Larmor frequency.

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