Stability and homogeneity of muscle phantom for radiation exposure from 5G signals

The increasing deployment of 5G wireless technologies has raised the need for accurate, tissue equivalent phantoms to explore electromagnetic (EM) wave interactions with human body organs. This paper investigates stability and homogeneity of a low-cost, easy-to-fabricate human muscle phantom exposed to radiation exposure from 5G signals at frequencies of 700 MHz, 2.4 GHz, 3.5 GHz, and 20 GHz. The phantom was formulated using agar, polyethylene powder, sodium chloride, xanthan gum, sodium dehydro-acetate, and deionized water. Its permittivity and conductivity were measured using a vector network analyzer (VNA) over a 45-day period under low (2–5◦ C) and room temperature (27◦ C) storage. The results showed that the phantom was most homogenous at 20 GHz with the standard deviation (SD) of 0.51033 and the relative standard deviation (RSD) of 1.67%. For conductivity, the phantom demonstrated good homogeneity. However, it did not align with the corresponding real human muscle conductivity. The most homogenous conductivity was observed at 2.4 GHz with the SD and RSD of 0.06194 and 2.31% respectively. In terms of stability, relative permittivity was most stable at 20 GHz under room temperature conditions, with a maximum deviation of 21%. Stability of conductivity performance, on the other hand, was best maintained at 2.4 GHz under room temperature, where the highest observed deviation was 53%. The findings highlight the potential of using low-cost materials to fabricate phantoms with stable electromagnetic properties suitable for wireless exposure studies, although further optimization is needed for accurate conductivity matching.

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