RF Exposure is a general term referring to the phenomenon of human exposure to Radio Frequency energy in our daily activities. In the case of consumer and high-tech equipment, the RF energy is of the less lethal non-ionizing type. Nevertheless, federal regulators limit the amount of RF energy that devices commonly used by humans can emit under various use conditions. For this purpose, devices are often classified by their mode of operation and proximity to the human body. Mobile devices are devices that are usually set at a fixed location and operated more than 20cm from the human body, thus usually regulated under less rigorous maximum permissible exposure restrictions. Other devices that are operated in contact or within 20cm from the human body, including cellular phones, are classified as portable devices and required to undergo more rigorous assessments of how much of the radiated transmitter RF energy is absorbed by human tissue (Power Density in W/m3).  

​

Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) refers to the rate at which energy is absorbed by the human body per unit mass (w/kg) when exposed to RF electromagnetic field. SAR is a regulatory and safety requirement for equipment marketed for sale in most countries under the scope of the requirements. The scope of equipment coverage is usually determined by the transmit power levels of the equipment under analysis, the frequency range, and the distance from the human body (usually the head or some other body part).

​

The Lagwaves team is able to provide RF exposure simulation services including Power Density and SAR computations to our customers now. Our simulation method involves importing a CAD of the device under test including the antenna. A phantom is also imported into the computational domain using voxel models of the human body, or we can assign custom material permittivity (epsilon) and conductivity (sigma) to simulate various conditions of human or animal tissue and other media for customer research.

 

In addition, we are working on obtaining the required accreditation to be able to provide official FCC 47 CFR Part 1.1310 and ISED RSS-102 RF exposure simulation-based assessments.

​

Some of the items required for a SAR simulation will include:
 

• ECAD of the boards (ODB++, Allegro, IPC-2581, HyperLynx formats)

• MCAD of the boards and enclosures (STP, IGES, STL, SAT formats)

• PCB Schematics (pdf format)

• Antenna model and specifications (gain, bandwidth, directivity, modes)

• SAR standard (FCC or ISED) and frequency range

• Intended and foreseeable use cases for SAR test positions and separation distance.

​​

Contact us for more information on our RF Exposure Simulation capabilities.