DEVELOPMENT OF AN RF CURRENT MONITOR TO MEASURE CURRENTS INDUCED IN THE HUMAN BODY

THE GOAL OF THE PROPOSED PROGRAM IS TO DEVELOP A CURRENT MONITOR SUITABLE FOR MEASURING RF CURRENTS INDUCED IN THE HUMAN BODY. IT HAS BEEN FOUND THAT CURRENTS OF HUNDREDS OF MILLIAMPS CAN BE INDUCED IN A STANDING HUMAN EXPOSED TO VERTICALLY-POLARIZED RF ELECTRIC FIELDS AT A LEVEL OF 1 MW/CM2 IN THE FREQUENCY RANGE OF TENS OF MHZ. LARGE CURRENTS CAN ALSO BE INDUCED WHEN A HUMAN COMES IN CONTACT WITH AN UNGROUNDED METALLIC OBJECT LOCATED IN SUCH AN RF FIELD. THE MONITOR PROPOSED FOR DEVELOPMENT IN THIS PROGRAM IS DESIGNED TO BE USED IN EITHER A RESEARCH ENVIRONMENT OR IN ROUTINE WORK ENVIRONMENTS TO WARN OF HAZARDOUS CURRENT LEVELS AND TO ENSURE COMPLIANCE WITH SAFETY REGULATIONS. THE MONITOR CAN BE WORN AROUND THE ANKLE OR OTHER PART OF THE BODY TO CONTINUOUSLY MEASURE INDUCED CURRENT LEVELS. THE MONITOR IS DESIGNED TO OPERATE OVER A FREQUENCY RANGE OF 10 KHZ TO 100 MHZ AND TO SENSE CURRENT LEVELS FROM 1 MA TO 1 A. DURING PHASE I, WE WILL DESIGN, FABRICATE, AND TEST A PROTOTYPE VERSION OF THE CURRENT MONITOR IN OUR LABORATORY. DURING THE TESTS, THE PROTOTYPE WILL BE OPTIMIZED TO ACHIEVE MAXIMUM BANDWIDTH AND SENSITIVITY. THE RESULTS OF THE LABORATORY TESTS WILL BE USED TO DESIGN A COMPLETE, FIELDABLE VERSION OF THE CURRENT MONITOR, WHICH WILL BE DEVELOPED AND TESTED DURING PHASE II. THIS MONITOR CAN BE CONFIGURED TO PROVIDE A VARIETY OF INFORMATION, E.G., AN AUDIBLE WARNING WHEN A THRESHOLD LEVEL IS EXCEEDED AND A MEASURE OF THE AVERAGE AND PEAK CURRENT LEVELS DETECTED OVER A GIVEN PERIOD OF TIME.