Development of an Experimental System for

Current Perception from 1 to 10 MHz

Yoshitsugu Kamimura, Kenshu Daimon, Naoya Matsumoto and Shunai Kimura
Department of Information Science
Utsunomiya University
Utsunomiya, Japan
gami@is.utsunomiya-u.ac.jp

Ken Sato
Department of Industrial Systems Engineering
National Institute of Technology, Hachinohe College
Hachinohe, Japan
satok-e@hachinohe-ct.ac.jp

Abstract—Although the reference level of the contact current is A. Materials and Methods
defined in the ICNIRP protection guidelines up to a frequency of
110 MHz, the experimental verifications of the current perception
threshold had been performed only up to a frequency of 3 MHz. Conventionally, the impedance of a human body between a
Therefore, we are currently planning the current perception finger and a wrist was measured with an impedance analyzer
experiments above 3 MHz. We first developed a current exposure (Agilent 4294A) with reference to the paper of Kanai et al.
device at frequencies from 1 MHz to 10 MHz. We then performed [11]. However, the continuity of the value became suspicious
a preliminary experiment using human volunteers and confirmed
that the current perception threshold was actually obtained. from around 5 MHz, and intense resonance began to appear
Index Terms—radio frequency protection guidelines, indirect above 20 MHz. Therefore, we measured with a network
effect, contact current, impedance matching, human volunteer analyzer (Keysight E5063A) referring to the paper of De Santis
experiment et al. [12].
We made a special jig for measurement (Fig.1). A metal
I. I NTRODUCTION thumbtack was soldered to the back of the BNC(male) terminal
with four holes and a square seat, and attached directly to the
In recent years, the spread of wireless power transmission port of the network analyzer with an N(male)-BNC(female)
is expected, however, the effect of contact current on human conversion connector. An electrocardiographic clip electrode
health has been one of the matters of concern. The present pro- was used as the wrist electrode.
tection guidelines on contact current was established based on
a classic threshold measurement result only up to a frequency
of 3 MHz in USA [1]. On the other hand, the advancement of
the measuring instrument has enabled us to perform a precise
threshold measurement [2]-[10].
We are recently planning a new experiment above 3 MHz.
At first, we have developed a current exposure device for at
frequencies from 1 MHz to 10 MHz.

II. M EASUREMENT OF I MPEDANCE B ETWEEN F INGER

AND W RIST

In order to efficiently inject current into the human body, it

is necessary to investigate the impedance of the current flow
path and to match the impedance with the current source.

This work was supported by Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communica-

tions Grant Number JPMI10001. Fig. 1. Network analyzer and jig for measuring human hand impedance.

978-1-7281-5579-1/20/$31.00© 2020 IEEE

B. Results
The measurement frequency range was 1 MHz to 110
MHz. Fig.2 shows the average values of 10 adult men (Zm ).
Unlike an impedance analyzer, measurement was possible
in a continuous and non-resonant situation. The impedance
between finger and wrist was about 1000±150 Ω at 1 MHz
and about 750±100 Ω at 10 MHz.

Fig. 3. Photograph of the impedance converter packaged in a metal case.

On the other hand, a function generator (Agilent 33521B)

having a maximum output voltage of 3.5 V was used as an
input signal of the amplifier. However, since the output of the
amplifier is saturated when the input voltage is 224 mV (=
1 dBm) or more, the output is suppressed to 112 mV or less
using a -30 dB attenuator (Agilent 11708A-030). As a result,
the output is suppressed to about 6.25 W, and the current is
about 90 mA at the maximum.

B. Current Measurement by RF Probe

A digital multimeter (Agilent 34411A) can only measure
current up to 10 kHz and voltage up to 300 kHz. Therefore,
Fig. 2. Frequency response of impedance between finger and wrist.
a high-frequency current of 25 mA to 100 mA is measured
using a 10 Ω resistor and an RF probe (FLUKE 85RF-II, 100
III. D EVELOPMENT OF I MPEDANCE C ONVERTER kHz to 500 MHz) that can directly convert to DC voltage from
From Fig. 2, the impedance between the human fingertip 0.25 V to 1 V. However, since the RF probe has non-linearity
and the wrist at frequencies from 1 MHz to 10 MHz is about at 0.25 V or less, the measured current value at 25 mA or less
800 to 1000 Ω. Since the output impedance of the amplifier is becomes inaccurate.
50 Ω, it is inefficient due to impedance mismatch. To match
the impedances, impedance conversion of 1:16∼20 is required. C. Other Safety Measures
Since the impedance ratio is 50:1000, the turns ratio of A 0.1 ampere fuse is built into the electrode box. The elec-
the transformer is 2:9. The thickness of the winding was trode box has an emergency stop button. The wrist electrode
changed according to the magnitude of the flowing current. is grounded (via a 10 Ω resistor and a 0.1 ampere fuse) to
The diameter of the wire on the primary side was 0.7 mm and prevent accidental electric shock.
that on the secondary side was 0.3 mm. Autotransformer was From the above, the circuit diagram of the developed current
manufactured using two FB801-43 ferrite beads. Fig. 3 shows exposure system is shown in Fig.4.
a photograph of the impedance converter packaged in a metal
case.
We measured the frequency response of the voltage ratio,
and found that the voltage ratio was about 4 times over the
frequency from 1 MHz to 10 MHz.
IV. C ONFIGURATION OF E XPERIMENTAL S YSTEM
A. Current Exposure up to 100 mA
Using an RF power amplifier (R&K A009K251-4444R)
with a gain of 44 dB and an output of 25 W, we conduct an
experiment to obtain a current perception threshold by flowing
a current from a human fingertip to the wrist to 100 mA. The Fig. 4. Circuit diagram of the developed current exposure system.
required power is approximately 8 W to 10 W.
 Fig. 5. Configuration diagram of the initial experimental system.
D. Input/Output Response
At the beginning of development, the impedance converter
was an external type (Fig.5). However, since the characteristic
impedance of the BNC cable used for wiring is 50 Ω, the
input/output response degrades rapidly from around 5 MHz
(Fig.6); where, input means output voltage of the function
generator, and output is the current flowing through the dummy
resistor (1 kΩ) simulating the human body. Therefore, by
incorporating the impedance converter in the electrode box, it
has been improved to connect directly to the electrode without
using a BNC cable. Input/output responses of improved system
are shown in Fig.7. The large deviation from the proportional
line at output currents of 10 mA or less is due to the nonlinear
characteristics of the RF probe. This region does not affect our
experiments and need not be corrected.
Fig. 6. Input/output response of initial development system (1 kΩ load).
Fig. 7. Input/output response of the improved system (1 kΩ load).
V. P RELIMINARY E XPERIMENTS U SING VOLUNTEERS
The subjects were 19 volunteers in their twenties (9 males
and 10 females). The frequencies are 3 MHz, 5 MHz and 10
MHz.
First, the current perception threshold (CPT) was deter-
mined by the method of limit (MoL). The limit method is
a method in which the stimulus level is gradually increased
from the sub-threshold level, and the stimulus level when the
subject perceives is the threshold. This is the method used by
Chatterjee et al.[1].
Next, the CPT was determined by the method of constant
stimuli (MoCS). The method of the constant stimulation is a
method of randomly presenting some stimulation levels, and
determining a threshold value by logistic regression analysis
based on the presence or absence of perception. The current
duration was 5 seconds each time. See the reference [10] for
more details of this method. Fig. 8 shows the results of a
preliminary experiment. We found that the results obtained
by the two methods are roughly in agreement. This system
has been demonstrated to be usable for current threshold
experiments at frequencies from 3 MHz to 10 MHz.
The experimental protocol was approved by the Ethics
Committee for Research in Utsunomiya University. Written
informed consent was obtained from all participants prior to
the experiments.
VI. C ONCLUSION
We have developed a current exposure system to determine
the current perception threshold at frequencies above 3 MHz.
For that purpose, we first measured the human impedance
between the finger and wrist, and produced an impedance
converter based on the results. An impedance converter is
 [7] Y. Kamimura, A. Yamashita, M. Yamazaki, S. Enomoto, K. Wake, Y.
Ugawa, “Improvement of experimental system for tracking the threshold
of current perception,” Bulgarian Journal of Public Health, Vol. VII,
No.2(1), pp.87–93, 2015.
[8] Y. Kamimura, Y. Sato, A. Yamashita, T. Nagaoka, K. Wake, “Electric
current exposure evaluation of hand in current perception threshold
measurement,” EMC 2015, Dresden, August 16-22, 5774, pp.1416–1419
(2015-08).
[9] Y. Kamimura, M. Yamazaki, S. nakatani-Enomoto, K. Wake, and Y.
Ugawa, “Stimulation frequency dependency of current perception thresh-
old in Japanese,” BioEM2016, Gent, June 5-10, PA-105, 2016.
[10] S. Nakatani-Enomoto, M. Yamazaki, Y. Kamimura, M. Abe, K. Asano,
H. Enomoto, K. Wake, S. Watanabe, and Y. Ugawa, “Frequency-
dependent current perception threshold in health Japanese adults,” Bio-
electromagnetics 40, pp.150–159 (2019).
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contact currents for frequencies up to 110 MHz,” IEEE Trans. on
Biomed. Eng., BME-58, 2, pp.390-396, Feb. 2011.

Fig. 8. Results of a preliminary experiment using 19 subjects.

built into the electrode box to improve the frequency response

of the current exposure system. As a result, experiments up
to 10 MHz can be performed. In preliminary experiments
at frequencies of 3 MHz, 5 MHz and 10 MHz, the current
perception threshold was determined by two kinds of methods,
and the results obtained were approximately the same.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
We thank to those who have contributed to this work,
particularly to Dr. Kanako Wake and Dr. Soichi Watanabe of
NICT.

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