Electromagnetic interference with medical devices from mobile phones using high-speed radio access technologies

Abstract

This paper clarifies the Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) with medical devices from mobile phones that use high-speed radio access technologies including those in Release 8 specified by the 3^rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) in a hospital environment. The Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) technique used in Release 8 has a higher Peak to Average Power Ratio (PAPR) than previous techniques such as Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (W-CDMA), and it may incur higher levels of EMI. The EMI is evaluated with respect to 32 medical devices that are typically used in hospitals. The evaluation results show that effect of increasing PAPR is not found significantly. The EMI strongly depends on the average transmission power of mobile phones. The maximum EMI distance is 80 and 8cm when the average transmission power is the nominal maximum (23 or 24dBm) and 10dBm, respectively.