Exposure of Insects to Radio-Frequency Electromagnetic Fields from 2 to 120 GHz

• Main Authors: Arno Thielens, Duncan Bell, David B. Mortimore, Mark K. Greco, Luc Martens, Wout Joseph
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Nature Publishing Group 2018-03-01
• Series: Scientific Reports
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-22271-3

Abstract Insects are continually exposed to Radio-Frequency (RF) electromagnetic fields at different frequencies. The range of frequencies used for wireless telecommunication systems will increase in the near future from below 6 GHz (2 G, 3 G, 4 G, and WiFi) to frequencies up to 120 GHz (5 G). This paper is the first to report the absorbed RF electromagnetic power in four different types of insects as a function of frequency from 2 GHz to 120 GHz. A set of insect models was obtained using novel Micro-CT (computer tomography) imaging. These models were used for the first time in finite-difference time-domain electromagnetic simulations. All insects showed a dependence of the absorbed power on the frequency. All insects showed a general increase in absorbed RF power at and above 6 GHz, in comparison to the absorbed RF power below 6 GHz. Our simulations showed that a shift of 10% of the incident power density to frequencies above 6 GHz would lead to an increase in absorbed power between 3–370%.