Unified SAR Measurement Standard Moves Forward; 5G and IoT Standards Also Progress

The unified SAR measurement standard IEC/IEEE 62209-1528 made another significant step towards publication last week at IEEE headquarters in Piscataway, New Jersey. On March 27, Joint Working Group 13 of IEC and IEEE completed the revision of the draft and the responses to the comments from the Committee Draft for Voting (CDV) period that ended on November 30, 2018. The document is now heading to the FDIS (Final Draft International Standard) stage at IEC. Publication as a dual-logo standard is expected in the second half of this year.

IEC/IEEE 62209-1528 represents an important advancement in human exposure assessment from wireless communication devices. It defines procedures and requirements for accurate SAR measurement of devices incorporating several new technologies. A joint effort of both the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), it combines and replaces three previous standards: IEEE 1528:2013, IEC 62209-1:2016 and IEC 62209-2:2010.

IEC/IEEE 62209-1528 enables SAR testing of new wireless device technologies, including instrumentation for 5G NR sub-6GHz evaluations. It also incorporates testing of proximity sensors and time-averaged power control. The frequency range is significantly expanded to 4 MHz to 10 GHz. These features give the wireless industry and national regulators confidence and a path to faster device compliance. Application-specific phantoms are now included so that a wider range of devices can be accurately tested (e.g., fitness trackers, head-mounted displays and any potential IoT devices). Test reduction methods and protocols for fast SAR systems are expanded to reduce test time without sacrificing confidence in the results.

Two important standards for exposure assessment of 5G millimeter-wave devices also made progress on March 25 to 27. Both standards, IEC/IEEE 63195 applying measurement techniques and IEC/IEEE 62704-5 applying computational electromagnetic methods, received positive responses during the Committee Draft (CD) phase ending in March. The document revision to address the comments is expected to be completed in November. Both are expected to become published standards in the first quarter of 2021. These standards will be critical for the fast deployment of 5G devices worldwide.

During the same week, a full day was devoted to drafting IEEE Guide 1528.7 for electromagnetic exposure of Internet of Things (IoT) devices. The first draft will be completed in June.