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Title: Human electromagnetic field exposure in wearable communications systems: A review

Journal Article · · e-Prime, Advances in Electrical Engineering, Electronics and Energy
ORCiD logo [1];  [1];  [2]
  1. Georgia Southern Univ., Statesboro, GA (United States)
  2. Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)

While wearable technologies have taken essential parts of our daily lives, concerns on human health are often overseen. Mainly due to extreme proximity or direct physical contact to human skin, wearable communications devices are prone to cause higher levels of electromagnetic field (EMF) exposure at human skin surface than any other type of wireless technologies. Nevertheless, while focusing on theoretical aspects of human EMF exposure in wearable communications, prior work paid little to no attention on exact exposure levels generated by commercial wearable devices that are already widely used by public consumers. In this context, this paper provides an extensive review of SAR from various commercial wearable devices that are currently sold in the market, as well as the analytical framework and the current measurement methodologies for standard compliance tests. To extend the discussion to general wearable communications, this paper presents simulation results adopting representative antenna patterns, which leads to suggestion of separation distances to keep the current safety guidelines. In particular, considering the increasing interest in millimeter wave (mmW), this paper sheds light on EMF exposure evaluated at 60 GHz and compares to results from 2.4 GHz.

Research Organization:
Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC07-05ID14517
OSTI ID:
2458149
Report Number(s):
INL/JOU--24-79449-Rev000
Journal Information:
e-Prime, Advances in Electrical Engineering, Electronics and Energy, Journal Name: e-Prime, Advances in Electrical Engineering, Electronics and Energy Vol. 8; ISSN 2772-6711
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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