Numerical dosimetry

Different European and international standards (e.g., ICNIRP guidelines, ANSI C95.1 standard, European Council Recommendation) define basic restrictions and reference levels for human safety in electromagnetic fields. In order to check compliance between electronic equipment and basic restrictions in human safety standards, additional standards exist that specify more detailed requirements for the testing. Most of these standards are based on measurements, e.g. the European standard EN 50361 for safety of mobile phones. However, there is a growing number of standards that specify requirements for numerical methods, e.g. the European standard EN 50357 for devices used in radiofrequency identification, electronic article surveillance and similar applications. The paper lists today´s possibilities and limitations in numerical dosimetric assessment by showing a variety of applications. Since numerical dosimetric assessment that can be used is at a very early stage of development, the examples are not limited to strict compliance testing, but can also be used to get a better insight into physical phenomena such as coupling mechanisms between the electronic device and the user. Special attention is given to the validation of the software and the phantom models of the human body and their influence on the results.