Measurement setup and protocol for characterizing and testing radio frequency personal exposure meters

Body-worn radiofrequency electromagnetic field (RF-EMF) personal exposure meters (PEMs) have been increasingly used for exposure assessment in epidemiological research. However, little research on the measurement accuracy of these devices is available. In this article a novel measurement setup and a measurement protocol are presented for characterizing and testing PEMs. The whole setup and procedure is tested using two EME SPY 120 devices. The performance of the PEM was analyzed for absolute measurements in an anechoic chamber. Modulated signals representing the different services as real signals generated by appropriate testers were used. Measurement results were evaluated with respect to a root mean square detector. We found that measurement accuracy depends strongly on the carrier frequency and also on the number of occupied time slots for Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA)-based services. Thus, correction factors can only be derived if the distribution of the network configuration over the measurement time for all measurement points is available. As a result of the simplicity of the measurement setup and the straightforward measurement protocol, the possibility of fast validation leads to a higher accuracy in the characterization and testing of PEMs.