Standards Development

Scope

This document specifies computational procedures for conservative and reproducible computations of the absorbed power density (APD) or epithelial power density, which is a measure to quantify the dissipated electromagnetic power in the human head or body due to exposure to radiofrequency (RF) electromagnetic field (EMF) transmitting devices. The computational procedures described are finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) and finite element methods (FEM), which are used to determine electromagnetic quantities by solving Maxwell’s equations. Other computational techniques may be used if validated. The procedures specified here apply to exposure evaluations for the significant majority of the population during the use of hand-held and body-worn RF transmitting devices with known uncertainty. The methods apply to devices with single or multiple transmitters or antennas that operate with their radiating structure(s) at distances up to 200 mm from the human head or body.

This document can be employed to determine with applicable APD limits for different types of RF transmitting communication devices used in close proximity to the head and body, with or without other RF transmitting or non-transmitting devices or accessories (e.g. belt-clips), or devices embedded in garments. The overall applicable frequency range of the specified protocols and procedures is from 6 GHz to 300 GHz.

The categories of wireless communication device covered in this document include but are not limited to mobile telephones, radio transmitters in personal computers, desktop and laptop devices, and multi-band and multi-antenna devices. The procedures of this document do not apply to APD evaluation of electromagnetic fields emitted or altered by devices or objects intended to be implanted in the body.