Publications by authors named "Leen Verloock"

A low-cost, tri-axial 50 Hz magnetic field monitoring sensor was designed, calibrated and verified. The sensor was designed using off-the-shelf components and commercially available coils. It can measure 50 Hz magnetic fields originating from high-voltage power lines from 0.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In this presented study, we measured in situ the uplink duty cycles of a smartphone for 5G NR and 4G LTE for a total of six use cases covering voice, video, and data applications. The duty cycles were assessed at ten positions near a 4G and 5G base-station site in Belgium. For Twitch, VoLTE, and WhatsApp, the duty cycles ranged between 4% and 22% in time, both for 4G and 5G.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This paper compares different low-cost sensors that can measure (5G) RF-EMF exposure. The sensors are either commercially available (off-the-shelf Software Defined Radio (SDR) Adalm Pluto) or constructed by a research institution (i.e.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Of particular interest within fifth generation (5G) cellular networks are the typical levels of radiofrequency (RF) electromagnetic fields (EMFs) emitted by 'small cells', low-power base stations, which are installed such that both workers and members of the general public can come in close proximity with them. In this study, RF-EMF measurements were performed near two 5G New Radio (NR) base stations, one with an Advanced Antenna System (AAS) capable of beamforming and the other a traditional microcell. At various positions near the base stations, with distances ranging between 0.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This paper describes the exploration of the combined antenna-channel model for a horse hoof. An antenna of 25 mm × 40 mm is designed in the ISM 868 MHz band. During the characterization and design of the antenna, the dynamic and harsh environment of the horse hoof is taken into account throughout every step of the procedure because it is impossible to de-embed the antenna from its environment.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

New measurement methods and equipment for correct 5G New Radio (NR) electromagnetic field (EMF) in-situ exposure assessment of instantaneous time-averaged exposure (Eavg) and maximum extrapolated field exposure (Emax) are proposed. The different options are investigated with in-situ measurements around 5G NR base stations (FR1) in different countries. The maximum electric field values satisfy the ICNIRP 2020 limit (maximum 7.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In an increasingly wireless world, spatiotemporal monitoring of the exposure to environmental radiofrequency (RF) electromagnetic fields (EMF) is crucial to appease public uncertainty and anxiety about RF-EMF. However, although the advent of smart city infrastructures allows for dense networks of distributed sensors, the costs of accurate RF sensors remain high, and dedicated RF monitoring networks remain rare. This paper describes a comprehensive study comprising the design of a low-cost RF-EMF sensor node capable of monitoring four frequency bands used by wireless telecommunications with an unparalleled temporal resolution, its application in a small-scale distributed sensor network consisting of both fixed (on building façades) and mobile sensor nodes (on postal vans), and the subsequent analysis of over a year of data between January 2019 and May 2020, during which slightly less than 10 million samples were collected.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This paper describes radiofrequency (RF) electromagnetic field (EMF) measurements in the vicinity of single and banks of advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) smart meters. The measurements were performed in a meter testing and distribution facility as well as in-situ at five urban locations. The measurements consisted of gauging the RF environment at the place of assessment, evaluating the worst-case electric-field levels at various positions around the assessed AMI meter configuration (spatial assessment), which ranged from a single meter to a bank of 81 m, and calculating the duty cycle of the system, i.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Radio-frequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMFs) can be absorbed in all living organisms, including Western Honey Bees (Apis Mellifera). This is an ecologically and economically important global insect species that is continuously exposed to environmental RF-EMFs. This exposure is studied numerically and experimentally in this manuscript.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The advent of the Internet of things comes with a huge increase in wirelessly communicating devices in our environment. For example, smart energy-consumption meters are being widely deployed in residences from which they communicate their state using radiofrequency networks. Accurate characterization of the radiofrequency emissions from emerging residential wireless solutions is important to inform the public about the potential impact on their exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Historically, assessment of human exposure to electric and magnetic fields has focused on the extremely-low-frequency (ELF) and radiofrequency (RF) ranges. However, research on the typically emitted fields in the intermediate-frequency (IF) range (300Hz to 1MHz) as well as potential effects of IF fields on the human body remains limited, although the range of household appliances with electrical components working in the IF range has grown significantly (e.g.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In situ exposure of electric fields of 11 microwave ovens is assessed in an occupational environment and in an office. Measurements as a function of distance without load and with a load of 275 ml of tap water were performed at distances of <1 m. The maximal measured field was 55.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This paper describes the design, calibration, and measurements with a personal, distributed exposimeter (PDE) for the on-body detection of radio frequency (RF) electromagnetic fields due to Wireless Fidelity (WiFi) networks. Numerical simulations show that using a combination of two RF nodes placed on the front and back of the body reduces the 50% prediction interval (PI50) on the incident free-space electric-field strength (Equation is included in full-text article.).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Characterization of exposure from emerging radio frequency (RF) technologies in areas where children are present is important. Exposure to RF electromagnetic fields (EMF) was assessed in three "sensitive" microenvironments; namely, schools, homes, and public places located in urban environments and compared to exposure in offices. In situ assessment was conducted by performing spatial broadband and accurate narrowband measurements, providing 6-min averaged electric-field strengths.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The rapid development and increased use of wireless telecommunication technologies led to a substantial change of radio-frequency electromagnetic field (RF-EMF) exposure in the general population but little is known about temporal trends of RF-EMF in our everyday environment.

Objectives: The objective of our study is to evaluate temporal trends of RF-EMF exposure levels in different microenvironments of three European cities using a common measurement protocol.

Methods: We performed measurements in the cities of Basel (Switzerland), Ghent and Brussels (Belgium) during one year, between April 2011 and March 2012.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In this study, in situ exposure assessment of both electric and magnetic fields of different intermediate frequency (IF) sources is investigated. The authors investigated smart boards and touchscreens, energy-saving bulbs, fluorescent lamps, a portable hearing unit and an electrosurgical unit (ESU). For most of these sources, the electric field is the dominating quantity.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Two radio-frequency personal exposimeters (PEMs) worn on both hips are calibrated on a subject in an anechoic chamber. The PEMs' response and crosstalk are determined for realistically polarised incident electric fields using this calibration. The 50 % confidence interval of the PEMs' response is reduced (2.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Concerns of the general public about potential adverse health effects caused by radio-frequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMFs) led authorities to introduce precautionary exposure limits, which vary considerably between regions. It may be speculated that precautionary limits affect the base station network in a manner that mean population exposure unintentionally increases.

Aims: The objectives of this multicentre study were to compare mean exposure levels in outdoor areas across four different European cities and to compare with regulatory RF-EMF exposure levels in the corresponding areas.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The indoor coverage of a mobile service can be drastically improved by deployment of an indoor femtocell base station (FBS). However, the impact of its proximity on the total exposure of the human body to radio-frequency (RF) electromagnetic fields (EMFs) is unknown. Using a framework designed for the combination of near-field and far-field exposure, the authors assessed and compared the RF-EMF exposure of a mobile-phone (MP) user that is either connected to an FBS or a conventional macrocell base station while in an office environment.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Occupational exposure to non-ionising electromagnetic radiation emitted by train protection (TP) systems operating at ∼27 MHz is investigated in situ. In total, five TP systems of two different types, i.e.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The influence of temporal daily exposure to global system for mobile communications (GSM) and universal mobile telecommunications systems and high speed downlink packet access (UMTS-HSDPA) is investigated using spectrum analyser measurements in two countries, France and Belgium. Temporal variations and traffic distributions are investigated. Three different methods to estimate maximal electric-field exposure are compared.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In this study, a novel methodology is proposed to create heat maps that accurately pinpoint the outdoor locations with elevated exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) in an extensive urban region (or, hotspots), and that would allow local authorities and epidemiologists to efficiently assess the locations and spectral composition of these hotspots, while at the same time developing a global picture of the exposure in the area. Moreover, no prior knowledge about the presence of radiofrequency radiation sources (e.g.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

For the first time, a personal distributed exposimeter (PDE) for radio frequency (RF) measurements is presented. This PDE is designed based on numerical simulations and is experimentally evaluated using textile antennas and wearable electronics. A prototype of the PDE is calibrated in an anechoic chamber.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Human exposure to background radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) has been increasing with the introduction of new technologies. There is a definite need for the quantification of RF-EMF exposure but a robust exposure assessment is not yet possible, mainly due to the lack of a fast and efficient measurement procedure. In this article, a new procedure is proposed for accurately mapping the exposure to base station radiation in an outdoor environment based on surrogate modeling and sequential design, an entirely new approach in the domain of dosimetry for human RF exposure.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

An experimental validation of a low-cost method for extrapolation and estimation of the maximal electromagnetic-field exposure from long-term evolution (LTE) radio base station installations are presented. No knowledge on downlink band occupation or service characteristics is required for the low-cost method. The method is applicable in situ.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF