IWR1443: Is IWR1443 EM wave harmful to human body?

Robert Chen

Part Number: IWR1443

Hi Experts,

I just know mmWave from MVP forum today. It is pretty interesting.

I want to design a product for monitoring new born babies, to check if the baby is breathing normally while the parents are sleeping. One of the key feature of mmWave is very important for this application: the used frequency will penetrate clothing. So, I think IWR1443 should be suitable for this application.

But there is an important consideration: Is the emitted EM wave harmful to human body, especially new born baby? Does anyone know this?

over 6 years ago

0 Vaibhav Mahimkar over 6 years ago

TI__Mastermind 23570 points

Hello Chen,

We will get back to you with response over this question.

Thank you,
Vaibhav

0 Christophe Cloutier-Tremblay over 6 years ago

Intellectual 265 points

Here is some good documentation on uWave body interraction.
arxiv.org/.../1503.05944
Study is based on 60 GHz but could be extrapolated.
Cheers,
Christophe

0 Francois Charlot over 6 years ago in reply to Vaibhav Mahimkar

TI__Mastermind 22957 points

Hi Robert,

The IEEE Standard C95.1-2005 specifies the safety levels with respect to human exposure to radio frequency electromagnetic fields from 3 kHz to 300 GHz. For the general public, the RMS power density limit in the 30–100 GHz range is 10 W/m2, or 1 mW/cm2. Please refer to the full IEEE standard as it specifies how to measure this power (averaging time...).

You also need to account for the duty cycle of your mmWave sensor. The IWR1443 has a maximum power of 12 dBm (16 mW) for 1 TX antenna, which translates to 0.16 mW of average power at a duty cycle of 1%.

Thanks,
François.

0 BhavinKharadi over 6 years ago in reply to Francois Charlot

TI__Genius 9020 points

Hi Robert,

Thanks for your question.

ICNIRP (International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection) limit for Power Density is 1mW/cm2. At 77GHz with EIRP of 20dBm (for our EVM), incident power density is much smaller than 1mW/cm2 at few centimeters. EIRP is highly dependent on customer system design, and it is customer’s responsibility to test the end product as per any applicable regulations.

Regards,
Bhavin

0 Robert Chen over 6 years ago in reply to BhavinKharadi

Mastermind 8905 points

Thanks Christophe, Francois and BhavinKharadi,

I will study the paper and standards. Good news is the distance between IWR1443 and baby should be less than 2m. I guess the TX power could be very small, e.g. 0 ~ -10dBm... need to get an EVM to verify my idea.

0 Francois Charlot over 6 years ago in reply to Robert Chen

TI__Mastermind 22957 points

Hi Robert,

Please mark the posts that answer your question as "verify answer". This will ease searches for the other e2e forum members. Thank you and good luck.

Regards,
François.

0 Robert Chen over 6 years ago in reply to Francois Charlot

Mastermind 8905 points

Hi Francois,

Thanks for reminding.

Sensors

Sensors forum

IWR1443: Is IWR1443 EM wave harmful to human body?