RF Shielded Test Enclosure — Benchtop — JRE 1812

If you're validating a 2.4 or 5 GHz Wi-Fi or Bluetooth device over the air, the 1812 is the chamber I point most people to first. It's our most popular mid-size benchtop enclosure, and the reason is simple: the interior — 8" H × 16.5" W × 10.5" D (205 × 420 × 270 mm) — is roomy enough to hold both your transmitter and your receiver at once, so you can run a real TX/RX link inside one sealed, quiet RF environment instead of splitting it across two boxes. We developed it for high-volume testing of larger RF devices, and that same interior holds several smaller devices side by side when you're running a batch. Shielding is −100 dB from DC to 1 GHz, −95 dB to 3 GHz, and −85 dB to 6 GHz, so the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands sit inside the −100/−95 dB part of the curve and you still have −85 dB at 6 GHz. If you need to reach past 6 GHz — Wi-Fi 6E/7, UWB, or 5G FR2 — the optional MW upgrade extends isolation to better than 85 dB all the way out to 28 GHz.

• Inside: 8" H × 16.5" W × 10.5" D (205 × 420 × 270 mm); outside 8.5" H × 18" W × 12" D (250 × 460 × 305 mm); 18 lbs (20 lb shipping)
• Isolation: −100 dB DC–1 GHz, −95 dB to 3 GHz, −85 dB to 6 GHz — optional MW upgrade to >85 dB at 28 GHz
• Removable, field-changeable universal B-size I/O plate (4.5" × 7" / 115 × 180 mm) — easily changed in the field, so one chamber serves many uses
• Rugged welded aluminum, built on our own fabrication line; 3/4" LS-30 RF-absorbing foam to deaden standing waves inside the box; double-contact door shields for repeatable measurements; dual latches that pull the door closed evenly
• Heavy-duty stainless steel hinges and top-loading lid for easy placement of your devices
• Includes two 80 mm vents, with an AC or DC fan available, for powered devices that generate heat
• Ships with no RF connectors or interface filters — you spec the filtered I/O (see below)

Will your device fit?

Size your DUT against the usable interior above, and leave yourself room around it for an antenna and cable routing — not just the device footprint. The 1812 has enough interior to run a transmitter and receiver together, or to hold several smaller devices at once for higher-volume or repeated production testing. If your part is bigger, or you're testing rack-mount gear, step up to the 2525. If it's a phone, tablet, or small handheld and you want to see it and reach in while you work, look at the 1812WS or 1812F further down.

It ships bare — plan your filtered I/O before you order

Read this part closely, because it's the thing people most often miss. The chamber comes with no RF connectors and no interface filters, and that's deliberate. Any connection you run into the chamber has to be properly filtered, otherwise that cable acts as an antenna that bypasses the shielding entirely — and a −100 dB enclosure with an unfiltered wire through the wall measures like an open box. So the chamber and its I/O get specced together, as one build.

A typical over-the-air Wi-Fi/BT setup on the 1812 looks like this:

• SMA bulkhead feedthroughs for your RF connections — conducted measurements or feeding in a reference signal.
• A filtered USB interface to program, debug, and pull data off the DUT — the USB 2-1, or the SuperSpeed USB 3-1, depending on your link speed.
• A filtered power entry (PEM-1) if the device needs AC inside the chamber.
• An antenna for the OTA leg — a simple 2.4/5 GHz dipole, or our broadband BBA-1 (1 MHz–6 GHz) for wide coverage in a single part.

It all mounts on the removable B-size I/O plate. If you're not yet sure what you need, that's normal — it's the part I'd rather work out with you before we build than have you guess. List the connectors and link speeds your DUT actually uses and we'll spec the plate around them.

The removable I/O plate — the chamber never goes obsolete

Every JRE chamber uses a removable, CNC-machined I/O plate — a design my engineers and I originated more than forty years ago. The B-size plate recesses into the wall, so it doesn't intrude into your test volume, and it swaps out in the field with a few screws, so one 1812 gets reconfigured for setup after setup over its life. The same operator-accessible thinking runs through the whole line: I originated the hands-in approach to shielded test boxes decades ago and kept extending it — sleeve, window, filters. The base 1812 itself is a top-loading box, and it isn't sold as a patented unit; the live hands-in sleeve and high-transmission window designs are what you get on the 1812WS and 1812F. (Patent detail lives on our patents page.)

The body is rugged welded aluminum. Double-contact door shields keep the RF seal tight for repeatable measurements, and the dual latches pull the door closed evenly. Inside, 3/4" LS-30 RF-absorbing foam deadens the standing waves that would otherwise bounce around a bare metal box, so your readings stay clean.

Running a powered device inside — venting and fans

A shielded enclosure is, by design, a closed metal box, so if your DUT runs warm under load you'll want airflow. The 1812 has two 80 mm vents — a shielded penetration that lets the box breathe without opening an RF path through the wall — and you can add an AC or DC ventilation fan when passive venting isn't enough. Tell us the device's power draw and how long your test runs, and we'll size the venting with the rest of the build.

When to pick a different version

• 1812WS — the same enclosure with a viewing window and hand-entry sleeves, for when you need to see and reach into the chamber during a test.
• 1812F — pre-configured for forensic phone and tablet work: window, sleeves, bright LED lighting, a USB 2.0 filtered interface, an AC power strip, and a shielded evidence bag.
• 2525 — the large benchtop cube when your DUT is bigger, you're testing rack-mount equipment, or you want two I/O plates' worth of connector real estate.

Lead time and how to order

The 1812 is in stock and ships within a few business days — rather than the multi-week lead times common for built-to-order shielded enclosures. Our in-stock Fast-Track populated I/O plates (for example the B1-4T-USB2-1 or B2-4T-LAN1 plate) ship in days as well; if your connector list calls for a one-off plate, we design and build a custom I/O plate in about a week. The chamber is $1,310; your filtered interfaces and connectors are quoted to match the configuration you actually need. There's no cart and no checkout here, on purpose — I'd rather get your I/O right the first time than let you order the wrong filter. Send us the device, the bands you're working in, and your connector and link-speed list — the Ask an Engineer form walks you through exactly what to spec. I'll confirm the build with you, our sales team will put together your formal quote with freight, and we'll build and final-test the chamber in the exact configuration you'll run it in.