Effect of a hands-free wire on specific absorption rate for a waist-mounted 1.8 GHz cellular telephone handset

A common feature of cellular telephony is the use of a 'hands-free' audio extension lead connected to a waist-worn handset. Interaction between the transmitting antenna, the wire and the user's body can occur, with detrimental effects including polar pattern degradation, reduced efficiency and localized increases in specific absorption rate (SAR). Using a realistic full-body model of an adult male, finite difference time domain analysis was employed to investigate the coupling between a hip-mounted 1.8 GHz handset fitted with a monopole antenna and a 1 m long wire representing a hands-free wire. Conduction current densities were computed for three identifiable coupling modes: magnetic-only, conductive-only and combined conductive-and-magnetic. Magnetic-only coupling was dominant. Without the lead, placing the handset at waist height led to a 42.8% increase in the total energy deposited in the body, compared to use at the head. Introducing the lead further increased the body loss, with a reduction in system radiation efficiency from 52% to 43.7%. Without the hands-free lead, the peak 1 g and 10 g SARs were 0.450 W kg(-1) and 0.265 W kg(-1), respectively, for 125 mW transmit power. With the hands-free lead connected, these values increased to 1.14 W kg(-1) and 0.430 W kg(-1), respectively.