WIT Press

A novel method for electromagnetic dosimetry related to human exposure from short-range devices

Price

Free (open access)

Volume

Volume 1 (2006), Issue 4

Pages

11

Page Range

327 - 338

Paper DOI

10.2495/ECO-V1-N4-327-338

Copyright

WIT Press

Author(s)

D. Šimunić, D. Zrno

Abstract

Electromagnetic dosimetry, which quantifies the interaction of electromagnetic fields with biological material, is primarily used for the evaluation of human exposures due to mobile wireless devices generating electromagnetic fields. The term dosimetry refers to the absorbed energy in an object, while exposimetry encompasses external field measurements. Both dosimetry and exposimetry are based on experimental and/or numerical methods. In this paper a proposed new method for numerical exposimetry for short-range radio frequency devices is described. The novelty of the field calculation method, called beam-tracing, lies in the determination of the total electromagnetic field, i.e. direct, reflected, transmitted, and diffracted, at a specific location. The calculation of the total external electromagnetic fields enables the determination of the deposited electromagnetic energy in a human being through the specific absorption rate using known approximation formulas. This paper presents an application of the beam-tracing method to calculations of human exposure from typical wireless local-area network systems located in an indoor environment.

Keywords

beam-tracing, exposimetry, non-ionizing radiation dosimetry, SAR, short-range devices