36
views
0
recommends
+1 Recommend
0 collections
    0
    shares
      • Record: found
      • Abstract: found
      • Article: not found

      Analysis of mobile phone design features affecting radiofrequency power absorbed in a human head phantom.

      Read this article at

      ScienceOpenPublisherPubMed
          There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

          Abstract

          The US FCC mandates the testing of all mobile phones to demonstrate compliance with the rule requiring that the peak spatial SAR does not exceed the limit of 1.6 W/kg averaged over any 1 g of tissue. These test data, measured in phantoms with mobile phones operating at maximum antenna input power, permitted us to evaluate the variation in SARs across mobile phone design factors such as shape and antenna design, communication technology, and test date (over a 7-year period). Descriptive statistical summaries calculated for 850 MHz and 1900 MHz phones and ANOVA were used to evaluate the influence of the foregoing factors on SARs. Service technology accounted for the greatest variability in compliance test SARs that ranged from AMPS (highest) to CDMA, iDEN, TDMA, and GSM (lowest). However, the dominant factor for SARs during use is the time-averaged antenna input power, which may be much less than the maximum power used in testing. This factor is largely defined by the communication system; e.g., the GSM phone average output can be higher than CDMA by a factor of 100. Phone shape, antenna type, and orientation of a phone were found to be significant but only on the order of up to a factor of 2 (3 dB). The SAR in the tilt position was significantly smaller than for touch. The side of the head did not affect SAR levels significantly. Among the remaining factors, external antennae produced greater SARs than internal ones, and brick and clamshell phones produced greater SARs than slide phones. Assuming phone design and usage patterns do not change significantly over time, we have developed a normalization procedure and formula that permits reliable prediction of the relative SAR between various communication systems. This approach can be applied to improve exposure assessment in epidemiological research.

          Related collections

          Author and article information

          Journal
          Bioelectromagnetics
          Bioelectromagnetics
          Wiley-Blackwell
          1521-186X
          0197-8462
          Sep 2013
          : 34
          : 6
          Affiliations
          [1 ] IT'IS Foundation, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. kuehn@itis.ethz.ch
          Article
          10.1002/bem.21784
          23533135
          d9db3c8a-63b5-4a8b-87ff-32bb3a7616b0
          History

          dosimetry,epidemiology,radiofrequency,specific absorption rate

          Comments

          Comment on this article