FDTD design of RF dosimetry apparatus to quantify the effects of near fields from mobile handsets on stress response mechanisms of human whole blood

Abstract

AbstractA Crawford transverse electro‐magnetic (TEM) cell, used for RF exposure of in vitrocell cultures to examine any pathological effects, is modelled using an original high resolution finite‐difference time‐domain (FDTD) code at cellular handset frequencies. The standard scalar specific absorption rate (SAR) dosimetry parameter is augmented by new vector parameters of field polarization type and phase, and an easily comprehensible way of displaying these data as polar plots is used. It is shown that whilst the incident field in the empty TEM cell has plane wave properties, the exposure field in a blood sample is not a TEM plane wave, nor is it representative of the near field produced by a mobile handset. It is suggested that the exposure field vector properties need to be quantified and controlled in the TEM cell, and experimentation performed to assess whether there is a differential cellular stress response to these parameters in addition to SAR level. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.