The Development of a Reverberation Chamber for the Assessment of Biological Effects of Electromagnetic Energy Absorption in Mice

Abstract

In this paper, we present the design, RF-EMF performance, and a comprehensive uncertainty analysis of the reverberation chamber (RC) exposure systems that have been developed for the use of researchers at the University of Wollongong Bioelectromagnetics Laboratory, Australia, for the purpose of investigating the biological effects of RF-EMF in rodents. Initial studies, at 1950 MHz, have focused on investigating thermophysiological effects of RF exposure, and replication studies related to RF-EMF exposure and progression of Alzheimer's disease (AD) in mice predisposed to AD. The RC exposure system was chosen as it allows relatively unconstrained movement of animals during exposures which can have the beneficial effect of minimizing stress-related, non-RF-induced biological and behavioral changes in the animals. The performance of the RCs was evaluated in terms of the uniformity of the Whole-Body Average-Specific Absorption Rate (WBA-SAR) in mice for a given RF input power level. The expanded uncertainty in WBA-SAR estimates was found to be 3.89 dB. Validation of WBA-SAR estimates based on a selected number of temperature measurements in phantom mice found that the maximum ratio of the temperature-derived WBA-SAR to the computed WBA-SAR was 1.1 dB, suggesting that actual WBA-SAR is likely to be well within the expanded uncertainties.