Coverage factors for efficient demonstration of compliance of low-frequency magnetic near-field exposures with basic restrictions

Abstract

Abstract Objective. Regulators require that wireless power transfer (WPT) systems and other strong magnetic field sources are compliant with the basic restrictions (BR) defined as the limits of the fields induced in the human body, i.e. the induced electric field/current density/specific absorption rate limits. This can be achieved by demonstrating compliance with the reference levels (RL) defined in air without the human body, i.e. the incident electric/magnetic field limits. Local sources, such as WPT transmitters, generate non-uniform fields that can locally exceed the RL while the induced fields are still well below the BR. In these cases, robust compliance with BR can be demonstrated, generally requiring a large number of simulations. In this study, we proposed an efficient evaluation using a homogeneous phantom and applying a coverage factor to account for the local field enhancements caused by the dielectric contrasts of the highly inhomogeneous human tissues. Approach. The generally applicable coverage factors were derived from a statistical analysis of the field enhancements observed on four magnetic near-field sources placed at different separation distances (2–80 mm) and locations on the back of 12 anatomical models. The field enhancements were characterized by the ratios between the peak induced fields in the anatomical models and those in the homogeneous half-space phantom (ϵ r = 55, σ = 0.75 S m−1, ρ = 1,000 kg m−3) at the same distance. Main results. The resulting 99th percentile coverage factors range from 1 and 9 depending on the dosimetric quantity. Significance. The use of these coverage factors reduces the compliance testing effort from hundreds of simulations to only one, and makes experimental testing feasible without the support of simulations. The study also demonstrates that running only a few use-case simulations with anatomical models may underestimate the exposure by more than 10 dB.