Abstract

Abstract Summary of the Study

Overview: The study introduces a novel mode-stirred reverberation chamber specifically designed as an incubator to facilitate the exposure of adherent cells in tissue culture plates to electromagnetic waves at 3.5 GHz.

• The chamber operates under typical cell incubator conditions, providing a temperature of 37 °C and humidity rate of 95%, although these are typically challenging for reverberation chambers.
• It is adapted to expose up to 10 tissue culture plates simultaneously under homogeneous conditions, pertinent to the mid-frequency bands of 5G networks.

Findings: The chamber's characteristics were ascertained using an experimental methodology involving S11 parameter measurements of the antenna. The Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) measured displayed minimal variations (<30%) and showed uniform field distribution.

• Measured SARs: approximately 1.5 W/kg per 1 W incident for 6-well plates and 1 W/kg for 96-well plates.
• Numerical simulations corroborated experimental SAR results, with deviations maintained below 30%.

Conclusion: The experimental and simulated findings underline that the novel reverberation chamber effectively maintains uniform exposure conditions suitable for in vitro bioelectromagnetic research, playing a crucial role in assessing the impact of electromagnetic fields on biological tissues, especially relevant in the context of 5G technology health impact evaluations.