Whole-body averaged SAR measurement method using cylindrical scanning of external electromagnetic fields

The final goal of this study is to experimentally estimate the whole-body averaged specific absorption rate (SAR) of humans using the radiation-field scanning technique and a silicone rubber phantom. Dosimetry estimations for human exposure including very numerically accurate phantom models have been reported. However, due to the difficulty of measuring the SAR over the whole human body for the purpose of assessing electromagnetic RF exposure, few investigations have used realistically shaped human phantom models. In this paper, a novel whole-body averaged SAR estimation method based on the power consumption obtained by measuring the radiated power from cylindrical surfaces including humans and the exposure equipment is proposed. Validity of the proposed method based on cylindrical fields scanning is investigated using Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) calculations for the purpose of designing and developing the experimental system. The calculated whole-body averaged SAR yielded by the proposed method is compared with that obtained by standard calculation methods.