Impact on industrial and other user communities

This project will enable manufacturers of vector-based SAR measurement equipment to have better quality control of their products and will provide greater confidence in their measurement accuracy. The consortium includes two of these manufacturers (ART-FI and KAPTEOS) and other manufacturers of these systems will be encouraged to join the stakeholder committee. The stakeholders will be updated on the progress and outputs of this project. The wider impact to industry will be achieved by incorporation of the vector array systems into IEC standards, which will enable the use of these systems by test houses for testing full compliance of mobile telecoms devices against exposure limits. This will result in considerable cost savings for device manufacturers and will reduce the time to bring new products to market. It will also increase public confidence on the safety of the devices.

Impact on the metrological and scientific communities

The outputs of the project will enhance the partners’ knowledge of metrology for Electromagnetic Field (EMF) safety and of the statistical analysis of vector-based SAR measurement systems, leading to further metrological advances in these areas. Results will be shared with the wider scientific community through peer-reviewed publications, training courses, and by dissemination through the BIPM Joint Committee for Guides in Metrology (JCGM), IEC and other scientific bodies e.g. IEEE, CIPM Consultative Committee for Electricity and Magnetism (CCEM) and EURAMET Technical Committee for Electricity and Magnetism (TC-EM). Full open access will be provided to datasets, software tools and documentary reports on the project website and through other databases e.g. the partners’ websites, to facilitate new scientific studies in this and related areas.

Impact on relevant standards

This project will be crucial for the successful completion and adoption of the IEC 62209-3 standard by providing the required calibration and uncertainty analysis methods and text for the revision of the standard. The partners will liaise with IEC – TC 106, in particular with the IEC – TC 106/PT 62209-3. Several partners are part of this working group, which is developing the IEC 62209-3 standard and will disseminate the outputs of this project and seek feedback, so that they can be incorporated into the written standard when this is published. Results will be provided as written reports and guides that are suitable for adoption into the standards. These reports will be disseminated to the wider IEC – TC 106 committee to facilitate the development of standards on EMF safety of other devices and the development of standards in support of 5G, which is a stated priority of the IEC – TC 106.