Update from IEC & IEEE Meeting

IEC TC106 and IEEE ICES TC34 joined forces last week to initiate two new standards for human exposure to electromagnetic fields from 5G devices, as well as to complete revisions on two specific absorption rate (SAR) measurement standards (IEC 62209-1 and IEC 62209-2). Significant progress was made toward the completion of a third SAR measurement standard (IEC 62209-3). Prof. Niels Kuster, founding director of IT'IS, and Dr. Mark Douglas, IT'IS project leader for certification research, represented the IT'IS Foundation at the meeting, which was hosted by Motorola Solutions in Plantation, Florida.

The committees started work on experimental and numerical standards for 5G devices. Due to the already ongoing active development and deployment of 5G networks, the committee set an ambitious 2-year timeline to complete these standards. 5G networks are expected to enable high-bandwidth, short-range communication between devices, facilitating the emerging Internet of Things (IoT). The devices typically operate at frequencies from 10 ‒ 100 GHz, where human exposure is limited by incident power density, for which procedures in the close near-field have not yet been established. The current state of the art and best practices were presented by various members throughout the first two days. Niels Kuster presented the latest research from the IT’IS Foundation regarding two main focus areas: defining biologically relevant exposure limits, and developing accurate measurement equipment and numerical assessment techniques. The presentations were based on results recently submitted for publication in peer-reviewed journals.

Later in the week, the committees completed work on a unified standard on SAR measurements of wireless devices, combining two standards for devices used at the side of the head (IEC 62209-1) and worn on the body (IEC 62209-2). An amendment to IEC 62209-2 was also completed. These two documents are now being submitted to the IEC central office, where they are being prepared for voting on by the National Committees. Publication is expected later this year.

Significant progress was also made on the drafting of a new standard for SAR measurement based on vector-measurement-based systems (IEC 62209-3), scheduled to be completed in April 2018. The committee further reached agreement on key issues regarding validation source calibration and the inclusion of scanning systems, the detailed description of which will be completed in the next weeks.