I work in a medical facility where there is an MRI scanner that was being ramped up (magnet turned on.) During this time period at least 8 people in the office had their smartphones killed. One person also lost an Apple Watch and another Apple Watch crashed but restarted.
Our theory, with the help of our medical physicist, is that during the 'ramp up' process, an electro-motive force was created that sent a strong surge of power into the phone's inductive coil, even though most of the employees were 20 to as far as >100 feet away from the scanner. While the MRI magnet may be shielded and the 5 gauss line is within the scanner room, this only applies when the magnet is fully ramped. The shielding is unbalanced while it is ramping resulting in a dynamically changing magnetic field which can induce crazy currents.
Only phones with inductive coils and wireless charging were affected.
Our theory, with the help of our medical physicist, is that during the 'ramp up' process, an electro-motive force was created that sent a strong surge of power into the phone's inductive coil, even though most of the employees were 20 to as far as >100 feet away from the scanner. While the MRI magnet may be shielded and the 5 gauss line is within the scanner room, this only applies when the magnet is fully ramped. The shielding is unbalanced while it is ramping resulting in a dynamically changing magnetic field which can induce crazy currents.
Only phones with inductive coils and wireless charging were affected.