IEEE-Standards Association Spotlights IEEE 1528

SCC 34 SC 2 Standard 1528 Approved on June 12, 2003.

In the IEEE-SA working group spotlight this week is IEEE 1528, the first standard produced by SCC 34 Electromagnetic Energy Product Performance Safety. 1528 provides standardized laboratory measurement techniques for accurately assessing the radiofrequency fields (called specific absorption rate, or SAR) induced by cellular phones and similar wireless handsets, anywhere inside a model of the human head filled with a dielectric liquid.

This is a groundbreaking standard and the first of its kind addressing the complex issues, instrumentation, and uncertainty of performing such measurements with millimeter accuracy and precision. Even before its publication, the draft was referenced in the U.S. Federal Communications Commission Bulletin OET 65, Supplement C. In addition, the work has been carried on with common membership in the International Electrotechnical Commission's Technical Committee 106 to ensure harmony with their publication, which is expected sometime next year.

The standard is entitled, "Recommended Practice for Determining the Peak Spatial-Average Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) in the Human Head from Wireless Communications Devices: Measurement Techniques."

The purpose of this recommended practice is to provide a protocol and instrumentation specifications for the measurement of the peak spatial-average SAR. The SAR is measured throughout an anatomical model of the human head of a user of wireless handsets, with the handset next to the ear. The head is filled with a liquid that has the microwave electrical properties of brain tissue. A tissue implantable electric field probe is used to scan throughout the head and measure the maximum SAR in a one or ten gram volume.

It provides standardized and accepted protocols, measurement and validation techniques, and means for estimating the overall uncertainty in order to produce valid and repeatable data. SAR limit values for human exposures are not included in this standard since these are found in other documents, e.g., the IEEE C95 series of standards, SAR limits are also cited in regulations in various countries throughout the world.

Contact the 1528 Working Group Chair, Howard Bassen, hib@cdrh.fda.gov

Overseeing 1528 is the IEEE Standards Coordinating Committee (SCC) 34, which is responsible for the development of product performance standards relative to the safe use of electromagnetic energy for specific products that emit electromagnetic energy at frequencies between 0 and 300 GHz (the frequency range covered by IEEE-SA SCC 28, International Committee on Electromagnetic Safety (ICES) exposure limits).

Contact the Sponsor Chair, Ron Petersen at r.c.petersen@ieee.org or Donald Heirman, the IEEE-SA Standards Board liaison at d.heirman@worldnet.att.net.