Abstract
With the development of 5th generation (5G) mobile networks people of different ages will be exposed in the upper part of the microwave spectrum. From the perspective of non-ionizing radiation dosimetry, an accurate analysis of age-dependent electromagnetic power deposition and resulting heating is required. In this study, we evaluate the effect of age on exposure at 26 GHz and 60 GHz. A near-surface tissue model illuminated by a plane wave is used to asses the exposure considering both frequency-independent and frequency-dependent limits. The age-related variation of the skin thickness and tissue electromagnetic properties has been considered. Moreover, the blood flow decrease rate has been taken into account to assess the age-dependent heating. Our results demonstrate that the overall variations of the power density, specific absorption rate (SAR) and heating in the near-surface tissues are limited to about 10–15%. These variations are mainly due to the tissue permittivity and blood flow change with age. In contrast to the transmitted power density that increases with age, the peak SAR decreases at both frequencies. The peak steady-state heating increases from 5 to 70 years old by roughly 11% at 26 GHz and 13% at 60 GHz.
Highlights
With the development of 5th generation (5G) mobile networks people of different ages will be exposed in the upper part of the microwave spectrum
Two incident power density (IPD) levels were considered: (1) IPD = 10W m−2 corresponding to the whole-body reference levels in the 6–300 GHz r ange[5,6], (2) IPD = 55fG−0.177 (30.90 W m−2 at 26 GHz and 26.65 W m−2 at 60 GHz) representing the limit for local exposure in the 6–300 GHz range set by International Commission on Non-ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP)
The effect of the age-dependent variations of the skin thickness and tissue permittivity is studied separately for each parameter in terms of the power transmission coefficient, power density at the interface between the air and the skin, and specific absorption rate (SAR), used as a source of heating in bioheat equation (Fig. 3)
Summary
With the development of 5th generation (5G) mobile networks people of different ages will be exposed in the upper part of the microwave spectrum. Our results demonstrate that the overall variations of the power density, specific absorption rate (SAR) and heating in the near-surface tissues are limited to about 10–15%. These variations are mainly due to the tissue permittivity and blood flow change with age. Along with the massive transition to 5G technologies, more and more children and elderly people use wireless communication devices expanding the age range of exposed population In this context, accurate dosimetry and understanding of power deposition mechanisms that depend on the physiological variations of the tissue properties with age are of uppermost importance. A more recent s tudy[17], using for the child models the standard dimensions specified by the Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) instead of the adult scaled ones, showed that the increase in the whole body SAR is not significant compared to the uncertainty expected in the numerical calculations
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