Why test for SAR?

Electromagnetic radiation (EMR), also known as non-ionising radiation, is generated by virtually all devices that transmit RF energy. It is known that exposure of the human body to high levels of EMR may lead to adverse health effects. To ensure the protection of personnel in the workplace and to protect members of the general public, the Australian Communications Authority (ACA) and other government bodies around the world such as the FCC and the European Commission, have mandated new regulatory frameworks which set compliance requirements for RF transmitting devices. Owners and operators of Radio and Telecommunications equipment, manufacturers and importers will need to establish compliance with the EMR standards which in many cases require SAR evaluation. In the USA, the FCC sets SAR limits and test methods for SAR evaluations. In Australia, compliance requirements are prescribed in the ACA EMR Standard 2003. Most other countries have similar requirements.

image compliments of SPEAG Non-homogeneous model of the head & brain tissue types The first phase of the ACA EMR framework commenced on the 31 January 1999. The current scope of the ACA EMR standard 2003 includes mobile phones and mobile phone base stations such as AMPS, GSM, CDMA, DECT, CT2/CT3, PHS, spread spectrum devices, WLAN laptops, tablet PCs, PDAs etc. The ACA and FCC scope now includes devices used at the head and devices used near any other part of the body. These devices must be evaluated against the ACA or FCC mandatory human exposure standard, which sets basic restrictions for the Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) of RF energy.

The absorption and distribution of RF electromagnetic energy in the body are very complex phenomena that depend on the mass, shape and size of the body, the orientation of the body with respect to the field vectors and the electrical properties of both the body and the environment. Accurate measurements of the electromagnetic field in the extreme near field of transmitters is therefore a difficult task. The complexity of the field distributions places great demands on measurement probes with respect to spherical isotropy, linear response, spatial resolution, minimal field disturbances and boundary effects. SAR evaluations of mobile telecommunications equipment (MTE) present the most restrictive specifications where tight margins are set with respect to the maximum permitted exposure, based on spatially averaged peak absorption. The measurement uncertainty must not exceed 30% ( 1 dB!!)

Read more about SAR testing of Mobile/Cell phones SAR journal article by Chris Zombolas

SAR New Compliance Requirements for Mobile Telecommunications Equipment (MTE) 2003 (pdf 249 kB)

Compliance Engineering

Specific Absorption Rate Requirements for Australia

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