Antennas in wireless communication and human interaction

Summary form only given. The antenna-user interaction results in deposition of microwave power in the body, often in the head. Not only is this power "wasted" from the communications efficiency perspective, but also if excessive, may result in detrimental health effects. Researchers in an IEEE working group, that has been developing procedures for compliance testing of handheld telephones, have firmly established reliability of the FDTD modeling of such problems. This article highlights of research in this field and examples of results are given. Most of the research so far has been devoted to cellular telephones operating either at 800-900 MHz or 1.8-1.9 GHz bands. However, research at millimeter wave antennas, pagers and laptop computers are also mentioned. Looking into the future, it is anticipated that modeling will broaden to encompass other frequency bands and wireless devices and new antenna designs, e.g., antennas on handsets covered with frequency selective surfaces derived from the photonic gap band (PGB) structures.