Written By: Ryan McCaughey, PhD.

Your cell phone communicates by transmitting and receiving encoded signals comprised of radio-frequency (RF) energy, a form of electromagnetic radiation. This signal, which is vital for communication, is also commonly referred to as cell phone radiation. Because it's not practical to eliminate cell phone radiation, alara reduces your cellphone radiation exposure to “as low as reasonably achievable”.

When your phone is transmitting it is generating an almost omni-directional electromagnetic field. When you hold your phone next your head, your head is directly in the most intense region of that field.

If you introduce any conductive element, e.g. a copper wire, into the electromagnetic field, it will induce a current to flow in the conductive element, in process known as capacitive coupling.  For example, this fluorescent light bulb is lit via capacitive coupling with the nearby high voltage powerlines.

By BaronAlaric (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)

The current flowing in the conductor generates its own electromagnetic field, and under the right conditions it can become an antenna. The dimensions of the conductor determine the frequency of the electromagnetic field it radiates.

Embedded within the alara case is a micro-thin conductive copper element, the dimensions of which are precisely engineered to generate cell phone radio frequencies. When it is placed on a phone (in the phone’s electromagnetic field) it capacitively couples to become an antenna. Analogous to the above example, the phone is the power lines and alara is the fluorescent light bulb. The phone and the alara antenna now exist as a coupled antenna array that forms a new radiation pattern which is weaker on the front of the phone next to your head.

In this way, alara reduces your exposure to cell phone radiation, while maintaining your signal. alara does not block or shield radiation, it reshapes the electromagnetic field pattern of the phone.