Simulated Effects of Specific Absorption Rate and Thermal Variations on Keratinocytes and Epidermis Exposed to Radio-Frequency

Abstract

Wearable wireless sensors are nowadays intensively investigated for continuous monitoring of biomedical parameters and are expected to be pervasively distributed on-body in the next future. In this work, a simulation model for the prediction of the Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) and the temperature variations of keratinocytes in vitro and epidermis in vivo is developed as a preliminary tool for predicting exposure effects of these wearable electronics. Skin cells in a culture medium and in a multi-layered tissue model consisting of epidermis, fat and muscle, have been exposed to electromagnetic (EM) fields generated by patch antennas at 1.8, 2.4 and 60 GHz, that are the most probable frequency bands that will be exploited for wearable applications, accounting for the dispersive models of the different tissues.