Investigation of SAR uniformity in TEM cell exposed culture media

The uniformity of in-vitro exposure of physiological saline placed in a Crawford TEM cell is investigated using both thermally and FDTD derived SAR profiles. The overall uniformity of the SAR distribution is investigated as a function of medium height and culture dish geometry. The thermometric-derived SAR measurements do not show the expected large variation with depth seen in other published work, and experimental results suggest that this is due to thermal conduction within the medium rather than thermal convection. It is also shown that SAR variation is greater if the dish rests on the metal septum within the TEM cell as opposed to being raised above it.