A Personal, Distributed Exposimeter: Procedure for Design, Calibration, Validation, and Application
This paper describes, for the first time, the procedure for the full design, calibration, uncertainty analysis, and practical application of a personal, distributed exposimeter (PDE) for the detection of personal exposure in the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) downlink (DL) band around 900 MHz (GSM 900 DL) The PDE is a sensor that consists of several body worn antennas. The on body location of these antennas is investigated using numerical simulations and calibration measurements in an anechoic chamber. The calibration measurements and the simulations result in a design (or on body setup) of the PDE. This is used for validation measurements and indoor radio frequency (RF) exposure measurements in Ghent, Belgium. The main achievements of this paper are: first, the demonstration, using both measurements and simulations, that a PDE consisting of multiple on body textile antennas will have a lower measurement uncertainty for personal RF exposure than existing on body sensors; second, a validation of the PDE, which proves that the device correctly estimates the incident power densities; and third, a demonstration of the usability of the PDE for real exposure assessment measurements. To this aim, the validated PDE is used for indoor measurements in a residential building in Ghent, Belgium, which yield an average incident power density of 0.018 mW/m2.
Sensors