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Study on Electromagnetic Radiation Detection in a Mobile Communication

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Article  in  Journal of Electrical Engineering · December 2014

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Study on Electromagnetic Radiation Detection in a
Mobile Communication System
Nishat Tasnim1, Ridwan Fayaz Hossain1, Susmita Basak1, Ibrahimul Hoque Chowdhury1, A.K.M Ehtesanul Islam1
1
Department of EEE, Ahsanullah University of Science & Technology, 141-142, Tejgaon Industrial Area, Dhaka, Bangladesh
tasnim.nishat2@gmail.com, rhossain@broncs.utpa.edu, basak.susmita28@gmail.com, tamzid.harry@gmail.com,
ehtesan@aust.edu
Abstract— Radiation from mobile communication system is an
important factor because of widespread use of mobile phones all
over the world. There has been new and increased usage of
detection devices for measurement of degree of radiation on
human and nature. Due to recent development, there has been
renewed realization of the technologies for next-generation
radiation detection. The present study evaluates the
performance of wire sensor based circuit to detect
electromagnetic radiation in a mobile communication system.
Measurement on Specific Absorption Rate as a function of
talking time on different region of adult human head is
performed. In our research work, effect of distance on radiation
near mobile unit and base station is observed. The present work
will be beneficial to understand the effect of mobile phone
radiation on human community.
Index Terms— Electromagnetic radiation, Sensor based circuit,
Mobile communication, Detection circuit, Specific Absorption
Rate.
I. INTRODUCTION
E
LECTROMAGNETIC radiation (EMR) is a form of
energy emitted and absorbed by charged particles,
which exhibits wave-like behaviour as it travels
through space. Electromagnetic radiation is classified
according to the frequency of its wave. The electromagnetic
spectrum in order of increasing frequency and decreasing
wavelength consists of radio waves, microwaves, infrared
radiation, visible light, ultraviolet radiation, X-rays and
gamma rays. In classical physics, EMR is considered to be
produced when charged particles are accelerated by forces
acting on them. Electrons are mostly responsible for emission
of EMR because they have low mass and are easily
accelerated by a variety of mechanisms. There are a number
of reasons that radiation detection is important. The primary
one has to do with exposure to radiation by radiation workers
and others. Recently, the number of mobile phone users has
increased exponentially and radiation detector has become an
important device. Electromagnetic fields from mobile
telephones and corresponding base stations might have
serious effect on health.
There had been many studies on detecting radiation from
mobile phones. In response to public concerns shared by the
environment quality authority in Palestine, a research was
Journal of Electrical Engineering
The Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh
Vol. 40, December 2014
initiated [1]. It was a simulation study to estimate and measure
EMR levels in Gaza. Another work was done in Malaysia to
measure thermal distribution in adult human head generated
by handheld mobile phone [2]. The analysis was conducted in
an anechoic chamber with average of 45 minutes talking time
with two different types of mobile phones. Internal and
external antenna served different radio frequency ranges. The
results showed an increase of heat especially at the place near
the ear skull after 45 minutes of conversation. Many scientific
reports have indicated that the health risks associated with
electromagnetic radiation are much higher than that was
initially understood [3].
Mobile phones use electromagnetic radiation in the
microwave range. This form of radiation is too weak to break
chemical bonds and is one reason why many falsely believe
that cell phone radiation is harmless. When the radio wave
from a cell phone is oscillating at 800 to 2200 megahertz, (or
two thousand two hundred million cycles per second) it is
moving much too fast for the body to detect [4]. The body
simply cannot recognize a radio wave moving at this speed
and thus it moves invisibly through the body without
detection. Since cell phones aren’t strong enough to heat
biological tissues, the mechanism by which cell phone
radiation causes harm occurs in a different manner. In order
to alleviate the harmful effect of cell phone radiation, we have
to detect the radiation. So, we have observed the effect of
radiation near mobile phone unit and base station by using
radiation detector circuit. Radio frequency causes dielectric
heating effect or thermal effect [5]. Thermal effects are the
temperature rise in the body because of energy absorption
from oscillating electric fields or electromagnetic radiation [6].
Thermal radiation of the mobile phone is also related to the
SAR. So we have also measured Specific Absorption Rate
(SAR) by a simulation based study.
II. THEORY
Electromagnetic waves are produced by the motion of
electrically charged particles. They travel through empty
space as well as through air and other substances. Besides
acting like waves, it also acts like a stream of particles (called
"photons") that have no mass. The photons with the highest
energy correspond to the shortest wavelengths [6].
A. Radio Frequency and SAR
Radio frequency has the ability to penetrate through semi-
solid substances like meat, tissue to a distance proportional to
its power density. This causes dielectric heating, which is a
kind of thermal effect, and it affects tissue of human body.
Thermal effects are the cause of energy absorption from
oscillating electric fields. The force produced by an electric
field on charged objects will generate electric currents.
SAR is the rate of RF power absorbed per unit mass by any
part of the body. SAR value commonly is determined either
1g or 10g of simulated biological tissue in the shape of a
cube. SAR value normally specified at the maximum
transmission power. Transmission power will be higher when
the mobile phone is used at the area with very low field
strength of received signals. SAR values are dependent on
the separation distance of the body and the mobile phones. As
the distance of the body and mobile phones is decreased, the
SAR values will be higher and vice versa. Using mobile
phones with low SAR values and making call at high
reception field strength which permitting low transmission
power can reduce the exposure to the high intensity radiation.
Equation (1) shows the formula to calculating SAR [2].
!! ! !∆!
𝑆𝐴𝑅 = = (1)
!! ∆!
In equation (1), σ is the conductivity of tissue simulant
(s/cm), 𝐸 ! is the electric field strength (V2/cm2), 𝜌 is the
density of tissue simulant (gm/cm3), 𝐶 is the specific heat
capacity of tissue simulant (J/gm/00C) and ∆𝑇 is the change
in temperature when exposed for time change of ∆𝑡. SAR
measurement always related to the dielectric conductivity as
shown in (1). Table I shows the electrical parameters of
various tissues at different frequency commonly used by
mobile operators in Bangladesh [7].
thermal radiation depends on the temperature of the heated
object. As the temperature of heated object is increased, the
frequency of the thermal radiation will also increase and vice
versa. When using a mobile phone, most of the heating effect
will occur at the surface of the head causing the skin
temperature to increase by a fraction of a degree. When our
tissue temperature is increasing, the brain's blood circulation
easily disposes of excess heat by instantaneously increasing
local blood flow.
Non-thermal effects could be reinterpreted as a normal
cellular response to an increase in temperature. The German
biophysicist Roland Glaser has argued that there are several
thermo receptor molecules in cells [8]. Those cells activate
third messenger systems, gene expression mechanisms and
production of heat shock proteins in order to protect the cell
from metabolic cell stress caused by heat.
III. LED POWER METER BASED DETECTION
In our study, we have used a detection circuit, which is
simple and does not require any voltage source. It converts
RF frequency waves from cell phone (whenever we call or
send a text) to little current to flash a LED [9]. It can detect
radiation by using the load (LED) of this circuit. The length
of antenna lead is very important; otherwise it might produce
a lower reading. The quality of LED is another important
factor. A good quality LED was used in our study.

TABLE I
ELECTRICAL PARAMETERS OF VARIOUS TISSUES [7]

No Tissue ρ Frequency Fig. 1. Breadboard Setup for LED Power Meter

900 MHz 1800 MHz

ϵr σ ϵr Σ

1 Bone 1850 08.0 0.11 08.0 0.16

2 Skin 1100 34.5 0.60 32.0 0.52
3 Brain 1030 55.5 1.23 53.0 1.70
4 Lens 1050 44.5 0.80 41.0 1.29
5 Cornea 1040 52.0 1.85 50.0 2.32

B. Thermal and Non-thermal Effects Fig.2. Equivalent Circuit Diagram for LED Power Meter [7]

Thermal radiation is an electromagnetic wave radiated

from hot surfaces of the object such as mobile phone. We arranged the circuit as shown in Fig. 1 on a breadboard.
Thermal radiation is generated when movement of charged Then we brought a mobile phone near the 5 cm lead and
particles within atoms generates heat in the form of an made a call. When the ringing tone started, the LED shone
electromagnetic radiation. The emitted wave frequency of the brightly and it continued as long as the tone was heard. We
put the test leads of a digital multi-meter across the 100 pF
capacitor to measure the signal strength. We took down the
GSM 900 MHz(Internal Antenna) GSM 1800 MHz(Internal Antenna)
multi-meter readings. We repeated the procedure and 300 300

collected the data at different distances and angles using one 250

SAR(W/kg)

SAR(W/kg)
200 200
and more radiation sources. 150
100 100

Basically the circuit is designed to charge the 100 nF 50

0
capacitor. The circuit starts working when 5 cm lead is 0 2 4 6
Gridline no.
8 10 0
0 2 4 6 8 10
Gridline no.
attached to RF emitting source (like antenna, collector of GSM 900(External Antenna) GSM 1800(External Antenna)
oscillating transistor etc.). Now, during positive cycle, it 250 300

250
creates a push in electrons present in wire, which is 200

SAR(W/kg)
SAR(W/kg)
200
150
transferred, to capacitor through upper diode & for negative 150
100
cycle a pull is produced, which again makes electrons to flow 50
100

50
in same direction thus charging 100 nf capacitor. The LED is 0 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 0 2 4 6 8 10
exactly connected to capacitor as if it is a charged battery. Gridline no. Gridline no.
100 pf capacitor is used to create dc isolation.
Fig. 4. SAR vs. Grid line number
IV. RESULTS
Fig. 4 shows our simulation result as a function of gridline
A. SAR Measurement Study
number for two different frequencies and for both the case of
As mentioned in previous section, first we had concentrated internal and external antennas. We can see that after 45
our study on electromagnetic radiation towards adult human minutes conversation, more heat is produced when the user is
head from Handheld Mobile Phones, which was previously using mobile phone with external antenna compare to mobile
studied by other researchers. Then we summarised SAR in phone with internal antenna. We also see that, in each case
terms of gridline and conversation. Fig. 3 shows heat gridline number 3 has the highest SAR & it correspond to the
distribution on head prior to the use of mobile phone (Table side locks region. So, it can be conducted that this part of
II)[2]. head is mostly affected by radiation.

GSM 900 MHz(Internal Antenna) GSM 1800 MHz(Internal Antenna)

1500 1200

1000
SAR(W/kg)

SAR(W/kg)
1000 800
600

500 400

200

0 0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
Time(minute) Time(minute)
GSM 900 MHz(External Antenna) GSM 1800(External Antenna)
1500 1500
SAR(W/kg)

SAR(W/kg)

1000 1000

500 500
Fig. 3. Heat Distribution on Head prior to the use of Mobile Phone.
TABLE II 0 0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
HEAT DISTRIBUTION ON HEAD PRIOR TO THE USE OF MOBILE PHONE Time(minute) Time(minute)

Gridline No. Side face position Temperature °C Fig. 5. SAR vs. Time
0 Above side lock 36.3 In the next case, Fig. 5 shows SAR as a function of
1 Ear 35.7 conversation period. This is plotted only for gridline number
2 Below ear 35.5 3 as it produces the most heat. From Fig. 5, we see that in
3 Side lock 35.4 almost each case SAR reaches the peak value near 5 to 10
4 Eye 35.3 minutes talking time. As the time becomes longer, due to
5 Above Eye 36.0 blood circulation of our body, the level of temperature
6 Forehead 34.4 decreases slowly. As a result, the value of SAR decreases
7 Left side of head 34.0 near the exposure point but increases in other parts of the
8 Above ear 33.9 body, which could not be studied by us.
9 Neck 35.2
10 Cheek 35.0
11 Lips 34.8
B. Radiation Detection Study near Mobile Unit At distance 5 cm At distance 10 cm
35 35
30 30
We had detected radiation from mobile phones using LED

Voltage (mV)

Voltage (mV)
25 25
[9]
power meter circuit (Fig. 1) . The effect of distance, effect 20
15
20
15
of angle and effect of number of radiation sources are 10 10
monitored. After dialling a number, we noticed in every case 5 5

that the received signal reaches its peak value at 5 seconds 0

0 5 10 15 20 25 30
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Time (second) Time (second)
and then it begins to reduce. After ringing for 30 seconds, it
gradually comes to zero. At distance 20 cm At distance 30 cm
35 35
30 30

Voltage (mV)

Voltage (mV)
25 25
20 20
15 15
10 10
5 5
0 0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Time (second) Time (second)

Fig. 8. Radiation from 1 mobile phone at Position 3

In the same way, we had measured the received signal

strength during a call keeping two mobile phones together at
position 1, 2 and 3 respectively. We found that radiation was
higher during this time compared to that of the case of single
mobile phone in the similar positions. Figure 9 shows
Fig. 6. Radiation detection study near mobile unit received signal versus ringing period at position 2 for the case
of two mobile phones.
At first, one mobile phone was kept at an angle 0 degree At distance 5 cm At distance 10 cm
with the sensor as shown in Fig. 6. The data were taken 300 300

250 250
keeping the phone at distances 5 cm, 10 cm, 20cm and 30 cm
Voltage (mV)

Voltage (mV)
200 200
from the circuit. The more is the distance, the less is the 150 150
signal strength. We repeated the process putting the phone at 100 100
angles 45 degree and 90 degree as shown in Fig. 6. Received 50 50
signal versus ringing period plots for 1 mobile phone placed 0 0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 0 5 10 15 20 25 30
at position 1 and position 3 respectively are shown in Fig. 7 Time (second) Time (second)
and 8. We found that the radiation is less at 45 degree than at At distance 20 cm At distance 30 cm
20
0 degree. 20
Voltage (mV)

15
Voltage (mV)

15

At distance 5 cm At distance 10 cm
350 350 10 10
300 300
5 5
Voltage (mV)

Voltage (mV)

250 250
200 200
0 0
150 150 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 0 5 10 15 20 25 30
100 100 Time (second) Time (second)
50 50
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 Fig. 9. Radiation from two mobile phones at Position 2
Time (second) Time (second)

At distance 20 cm At distance 30 cm Similarly, keeping 2 mobile phones at position 1 and 3 we

30 30

25
found that the radiation is less at angle 90 degree compare to
25
45 degree.
Voltage (mV)
Voltage (mV)

20 20

15 15

10 10 In Fig 7-9, we had observed that after pick at 5 sec,

5 5 radiation level is decreased. The reason may be we had our
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 experiment in a closed room where received signal was not
Time (second)
Time (second) strong. We noticed after making the call successfully starting
from the fifth second the signal bar started getting better.
Fig. 7. Radiation from one mobile phone at Position 1 Fewer bars indicate a weaker signal. A weaker signal means
the cell phone will generate more power to maintain the
connection. In another study it is reported that for each bar
lost due to poor signal strength the cell phone will increase its
power by 1000% to maintain the connection that causes
greater exposure to the electromagnetic radiation [4]. That is
why it may be concluded that after 5 sec the voltage level
decreased, as the signal got better.
C. Radiation Detection Study near Base Station
We have detected radiation near the 2G base station of a
renowned mobile phone operator using Nokia 6360 mobile
[9]
phone by LED Power Meter circuit . In the same process,
we collected the data to plot the received signal versus time
graph, which is shown in Fig.10. We found that there is not
much variation in radiation with time near the base station. In
the same way as that of mobile phone unit, the more was the
distance from base station the less was the signal strength.
At distance 5 cm
250
200
Voltage (mV)
Minimization of cell phone usage is a way to reduce this type
of emission. Since the radiation is the highest near the ear
region, one can use hands-free devices. If we can talk keeping
the phone at a distant place or if we use earphone
technologies such as Bluetooth headsets, we can lessen the
harm of radiation. Radiation from base stations and their
antennas are even more powerful. We found continuous
emission with our circuit at the base station tower. People
who live close to the base station are at serious risk of
radiation. So, it is suggested that, base station towers should
be kept away from densely populated residential area as far as
possible, because of high risk of radiation.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to Dept. of
At distance 10 cm EEE, Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology for
250
his continuous assistance, encouragement and guidance
200
throughout to the preparation of our research paper.

Voltage (mV)

150 150

100 100

50 50 REFERENCES
0 0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Time (second) Time (second) [1] Muhammed Abdelati, “Electromagnetic Radiation From
At distance 20 cm At distance 30 cm
Mobile Phone Base Stations At GAZA”,Journal of The
250 250 Islamic University of Gaza (Natural Sciences Series) Vol.13,
200 200 No.2, pp. 129-146 ,2005 ISSN 1726-6807
Voltage (mV)
Voltage (mV)

150 150
[2] D.A.A. Mat, W.T. Kho, A. Joseph, K. Kipli, K. Lias, A.S.W.
Marzuki and S. Sahrani, “Electromagnetic Radiation towards
100 100
Adult Human Head from Handheld Mobile Phones”,
50 50
International Journal of Network and Mobile Technologies
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
ISSN 1832-6758 Electronic version, vol 1/ISSUE 2/
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[3] A. Ahlbom And M. Feychting, ‘Electromagnetic Radiation’,
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[4] Lynn Quiring, RPH, CCN, NMD, “The Cell Phone Poisoning
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base station. From that base station our phone call goes into [5] Wikipedia2. (n.d.) Dielectric heating. [Online]. Retrieved 29
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V. CONCLUSIONS [8] F. Akleman, and L. Sevgi, “FDTD Analysis of human head-
Throughout our study, we had detected and measured mobile phone interaction in terms of specific absorption rate
radiation in mobile communication system. Our simulation calculations and antenna design”, In Proceedings of IEEE-APS
based SAR study indicated that use of internal antenna is Conference, Antennas and propagation for wireless
communication, Vol.1, No.2, pp. 85-88 , 1998
favourable because less heat is absorbed with internal antenna
[9] LED Power Meter Circuit [Online]
compared to that of using external antenna. We observed in Available:http://www.talkingelectronics.com/projects/LEDPwr
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linear or angular distance of the mobile phone from the lead
of the circuit, the less was the signal strength. This result was
obtained when the phone was kept at a more and more distant
place from direct contact of our skin. Another outcome of this
experiment was that, if the number of radiation sources
increases, then radiation will also increase with time.
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