Efficient Whole-Body SAR Assessments by Means of Surface Scan Measurements

In this study, an experimental method has been investigated for efficient assessments of whole-body specific absorption rates (SAR) from radio base station antennas. Using surface amplitude measurements of the electric field components together with an integral equation technique, a method is obtained which is not biased to specific antenna designs or phantom shapes. For realistic material parameters, it has been found that only the amplitude of the tangential field components over the phantom boundary is needed to accurately assess whole-body SAR, which makes the proposed method well suited for integration with commercially available SAR measurement systems. The method has been validated with simulations and measurements. Compared with a volumetric scan, and for the cases investigated, the measurement time was reduced with a factor larger than 3 while keeping the relative error smaller than 8%.