A Faraday cage or Faraday shield is an enclosure formed by conducting material or by a mesh type of material. Such an enclosure blocks external static and non-static electric fields. Faraday cages are named after the English scientist Michael Faraday. He used one in 1836, to prove that electricity was a force, not an imponderable fluid as was believed at the time. An impressive demonstration of the Faraday Cage effect is when is struck by lightning. This happens frequently, but does not harm the plane or passengers. The metal body of the aircraft protects the interior.
ESD control products that create a Faraday Cage or shielding include; bags, corrugated with a shielding layer, and conductive totes. Additionally, ESD Smocks create a Faraday Cage effect around the torso and arms of the operator to shield charges from the operator’s clothing from damaging ESD sensitive devices. (suppressing the electrical field from clothing worn underneath). The shielding test method per packaging standard ANSI/ESD S541 is ANSI/ESD STM11.31 and the required limit is less than 50 nanoJoules of energy