Exposure Levels Induced in Curved Body Parts at mmWaves

This study investigates the impact of the ear and the finger curvature on the electromagnetic (EM) power absorption and resulting heating to quantify the potential enhancement of the induced exposure levels compared to commonly used planar tissue models. The analysis is performed at millimeter-wave (mmW) frequencies upcoming for 5G and future generations, with a special attention to 26 GHz and 60 GHz. A cylindrical model is used to calculate EM power density and heat in fingers (radii a <= 10 mm) and EM power density in ears (1 mm <= a <= 5 mm). To compute the temperature rise in the ear, the model is modified to account for heat conduction in the tissue connecting the ear to the head. Our results show that for transverse electric (TE) polarization the maximal absorbed power density remains generally lower than for a planar interface (up to -38.2% at 26 GHz and -18.7% at 60 GHz) and exceeds this value for transverse magnetic (TM) polarization (up to 72.3 % at 26 GHz and 15 % at 60 GHz). The resulting heating is always higher than for the planar model. For the ear model (a =1 mm), the variations at steady state reach 93.11 % at 26 GHz and 103.62 % at 60 GHz.

Automated summary

This study investigates the impact of ear and finger curvature on electromagnetic power absorption and resulting heating. The results show that curvature can potentially enhance the induced exposure levels compared to commonly used planar tissue models.