Table 2.
Stand-alone tools for environmental and personal RF-EMF assessment
| Type/name (country of manufacture) | Frequency bands (range) | Sampling intervals (s); data storage capacity/data points | Detection limits (measurement range) | Parameters measured | Size (L × W × H, cm); Weights (g) | Battery lives | GPS (Global Positioning System)/Geolocation function | Measurement uncertainties (vendors’ data)a | Validation and applications |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ExpoM-RF 4™ (Switzerland) [39] | 25 frequency bands (50 MHz–6 GHz) | 3–6000 s; 16 GB | 5 mV/m–6 V/m (high sensitivity mode); up to 60 V/m (high field strength mode) | RMS and max E-field strengths (V/m) | 16 × 8 × 4; 360 | Variable (e.g., > 15 h with 25 bands, 5 s interval and GPS off) | Available | 4.5 dB (decibel) (expanded uncertainty) [in free space] | Environmental/personal exposure assessments, akin to ExpoM-RF 3™ [40, 41] |
| EME Evolution™ (France) [42] | 20 frequency bands (8 MHz–6 GHz) | 2–255 s; NA | 0.02–6 V/m | RMS, min and max E-field strengths (V/m) | 17.6 × 7.3 × 4.8; 520 | ~ 1–7 days depending upon measurement scenarios | Available | NA | Environmental/ personal exposure assessment |
| Exposimeter [43] (Spain) | (78 MHz–6 GHz) | resolution bandwidth 300 kHz; sweeping time ~ 902 ms; SD card memory up to 2 GB | − 70 to + 20 dBm (decibels per milliwatt) | max E-field power density (in dBm; 0 dBm = 1 mW), which needs to be converted into the power density (in W/m2) [43] | 8.5 × 7.0 × 2.2; 250 | – | Available | 0.04 dB [in free space] | Environmental/personal exposure assessment [43] |
| Personal distributed exposimeter (PDE) or Whole Body Worn Exposimeter (WBWE) [20, 44, 45] | Up to 11 frequency bands: 4 frequency bands (900 DL and UL, MHz, Wi-Fi 2.4 GHz, 2.6 GHz) [15]; 10 frequency bands (800, 900 UL/DL, 1800 UL/DL, 2100 UL/DL, 2600 MHz, DECT 1900 MHz, Wi-Fi 2.4 GHz); 11 frequency bands (790 MHz-5.5 GHz) [39] | 1 s or extendable (2–90 s) | 6 mV/m (lower detection limit) | average power density (W/m2) | Multiple receiving antennas, attached to a vest | – | NA | 3.4–5.5 dB [on-body] | Personal exposure assessment [20, 44, 45] |
| PDE-Helmet [46] | 925–960 MHz | 1 s | 11.3 mV/m–113 V/m (on-body calibration) | average power density (W/m2) | 4 stub antennas (aperture = 1.8 cm2) embedded in a helmet | Up to 48 h [personal comm. Arno Thielens, 16/6/2021] | NA | 5.5 dB [on-body] | Head-specific exposure assessment [46] |
| SRM-3006™ (Germany) with multiple probes [47–51] | 9 kHz–6 GHz | User selectable | 0.2 mV/m–200 V/m (27 MHz–3 GHz); 14 mV/m–160 V/m (420 MHz–6 GHz) [E-field probes] | average, min and max E-field strengths (data and spectrum modes) | 21.3 × 29.7 × 7.7; 2800 (excl. cable connectable probes) | 2.5 h (with GPS) | Available | Frequency specific (e.g., + 3.3/ − 5.3 dB for 2700–3000 MHz; + 3.1/ − 4.9 dB for 5000–6000 MHz) [in free space] | Environmental exposure assessment [47–51] |
| NBM-550 ™ (Germany) with multiple probes [52] | 100 kHz–50 GHz (E-field); 300 kHz–30 MHz (H-field) [53] | 5 s (manual measurement); 5, 50, 60 s (remote control measurement) |
Probe-specific (EF 0691, 0.35–650 V/m [100 kHz–6 GHz] [E-field]); HF 0191 0.018–16 A/m 27 MHz–1 GHz [B-field] |
average, min and max E-field strength (V/m)/B-field strength (A/m) | Available, if added as an additional module | ± 1.5 dB (1 MHz − 4 GHz) [53] [in free space] | Environmental exposure assessments (occupational/the general public) [53] | ||
| RFeye™ systems (USA) [54] | 9 kHz–8 GHz, 9 kHz–18 GHz, or 9 kHz–40 GHz | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | Exposure monitoring over a geographic area [54, 55] |
|
RadMan 2XT ™ [56] RadMan 2LT ™ [56] |
50 MHz–8 GHz (E-field); 50 MHz–1 GHz (H-field) [LT] 900 kHz–60 GHz (E-field); 27 MHz–1 GHz (H-field) [XT, ICNIRP 98 Occ models] |
1 s (XT), 1 s–30 ms (LT, pulse mode) [integration time] 2880 events (1-min logging interval) [LT] 100,000 events (1–6 min logging interval) [XT] |
< 1% of standard (RMS E-field and B-field strengths) | 5%, 10%, 25%,50%, 100%, and 200% of the standards; vibration and audible sound activation at 50% and 100% of the standard | 165 × 47 × 31 mm; 185 g | 800 h of operation; | NA |
± 3.5 dB (LT); frequency dependent for XT, e.g., ± 3 dB (900 MHz–0 GHz) [E-Field] ± 3 dB (LT); ± 3 dB (XT, 27 MHz-1 GHz) [H-Field] [in free space] |
Personal exposure assessment (occupational/the general public); % of the standard means any national or international RF-EMF exposure limits, including ICNIRP |
| Drone-based RF-EMF measurement nodes [57] | 3-D RF-EMF exposure assessment up to 60 m height above ground (900 MHz) | 1 s | RMS electric field strength (V/m) or average power density (W/m2) | – | 15–20 min | NA | 2.3 dB [in free space] | 3-D environmental RF-EMF exposure assessment [57] |
NA not available, GB gigabyte, DL downlink, UL uplink, ICNIRP International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection, SD Secure Digital, dB is a standard unit used to measure the intensity of the power level of an electrical not available signal by comparing it with a given level on a scale, GPS global positioning satellite, 3D 3-dimensional
aMeasurement Uncertainties: for PDE,/WBWE and PDE-Helmet it is ob-body calibration, for the others it is in free space. Note: parameters measured at frequencies exceeding 1 GHz are E-field only