FINITE-DIFFERENCE TIME-DOMAIN ANALYSIS OF A COMPLETE TRANSVERSE ELECTROMAGNETIC CELL LOADED WITH LIQUID BIOLOGICAL MEDIA IN CULTURE DISHES

Transverse electromagnetic (TEM) cells can be used for exposing biolog ical culture specimens to electromagnetic fields and observing possibl e anomalous effects. The uniformity of field exposure is critical to q uantifying the biological response versus the electromagnetic dose. St anding waves and other electromagnetic field nonuniformities can cause nonuniform exposure. This paper reports the results of high-resolutio n three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations o f a complete TEM cell designed for operation at 837 MHz. Several diffe rent cases were studied in which the number of culture dishes, the dep th of the culture liquid, and the orientation of the culture dishes we re varied. Further, the effect of the culture-dish glass bottom thickn ess and the meniscus of the liquid medium were examined, The FDTD resu lts show that there is a significant nonuniform held and specific abso rption rate (SAR) distribution within the culture medium for each case examined. Hence, biological dose-response experiments using the TEM c ell should account for the possibility of strong localized SAR peaking in the culture media to provide useful data in setting exposure stand ards for wireless communications.