title: A Personal, Distributed Exposimeter: Procedure for Design, Calibration, Validation, and Application.
abstract: This paper describes, for the first time, the procedure for the full design, calibration, uncertainty analysis, and practical application of a personal, distributed exposimeter (PDE) for the detection of personal exposure in the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) downlink (DL) band around 900 MHz (GSM 900 DL). The PDE is a sensor that consists of several body-worn antennas. The on-body location of these antennas is investigated using numerical simulations and calibration measurements in an anechoic chamber. The calibration measurements and the simulations result in a design (or on-body setup) of the PDE. This is used for validation measurements and indoor radio frequency (RF) exposure measurements in Ghent, Belgium. The main achievements of this paper are: first, the demonstration, using both measurements and simulations, that a PDE consisting of multiple on-body textile antennas will have a lower measurement uncertainty for personal RF exposure than existing on-body sensors; second, a validation of the PDE, which proves that the device correctly estimates the incident power densities; and third, a demonstration of the usability of the PDE for real exposure assessment measurements. To this aim, the validated PDE is used for indoor measurements in a residential building in Ghent, Belgium, which yield an average incident power density of 0.018 mW/m².
authors: Department of Information Technology, Ghent University/iMinds, Gaston Crommenlaan 8, Ghent B-9050, Belgium. arno.thielens@intec.ugent.be.
authors: Arno
authors: A
authors: Thielens
authors: Department of Information Technology, Ghent University/iMinds, Gaston Crommenlaan 8, Ghent B-9050, Belgium. peter.vanveerdeghem@ugent.be.
authors: Peter
authors: P
authors: Vanveerdeghem
authors: Department of Information Technology, Ghent University/iMinds, Gaston Crommenlaan 8, Ghent B-9050, Belgium. patrick.vantorre@ugent.be.
authors: Patrick
authors: P
authors: Van Torre
authors: Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Socinstrasse 57, Basel 4051, Switzerland. stephanie.gaengler@cut.ac.cy.|University of Basel, Basel 4051, Switzerland. stephanie.gaengler@cut.ac.cy.
authors: Stephanie
authors: S
authors: Gängler
authors: Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Socinstrasse 57, Basel 4051, Switzerland. Martin.Roosli@unibas.ch.|University of Basel, Basel 4051, Switzerland. Martin.Roosli@unibas.ch.
authors: Martin
authors: M
authors: Röösli
authors: Department of Information Technology, Ghent University/iMinds, Gaston Crommenlaan 8, Ghent B-9050, Belgium. Hendrik.Rogier@ugent.be.
authors: Hendrik
authors: H
authors: Rogier
authors: Department of Information Technology, Ghent University/iMinds, Gaston Crommenlaan 8, Ghent B-9050, Belgium. Luc.Martens@intec.UGent.be.
authors: Luc
authors: L
authors: Martens
authors: Department of Information Technology, Ghent University/iMinds, Gaston Crommenlaan 8, Ghent B-9050, Belgium. wout.joseph@intec.ugent.be.
authors: Wout
authors: W
authors: Joseph
keywords: personal exposure assessment; radio frequency sensor