New SAR Measurement Standard Published

A new international standard for SAR measurement of wireless devices, IEEE 1528-2013, was published  on 6 September (“IEEE Recommended Practice for Determining the Peak Spatial-Average Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) in the Human Head from Wireless Communications Devices: Measurement Techniques”). This is the first full revision of the standard since publication of IEEE 1528-2003. It was developed by the International Committee on Electromagnetic Safety, Technical Committee 34, chaired by Mark Douglas of the SPEAG, with the active participation of mobile phone manufacturers, testing laboratories, academic institutions and regulatory agencies.

IEEE 1528-2013 incorporates new procedures to improve SAR testing efficiency of wireless devices while maintaining excellent measurement reproducibility and low uncertainty. These include:

• Fast SAR technologies to significantly reduce the overall test time while resulting in the same reported maximum SAR as full testing. The time reduction is not achieved at the cost of rigorousness and precision.
• Test reduction procedures to reduce the number of unnecessary test configurations, incorporating statistical methods.
• Procedures to test devices with multiple transmitters capable of simultaneous transmission.
• SAR correction formulas enabling the use of broadband tissue-equivalent liquids.
• Extension of the frequency range up to 6 GHz, including liquid recipes, probe specifications and scanning procedures.