SAR Study of Mobile Phones as a function of Antenna Q

High-Q tunable antennas are good alternatives to low-Q passive antennas because the antenna size can be smaller while covering the required long-term evolution (LTE) frequency bands. However, among other things, specific absorption rate (SAR) can become a challenge due to the relative high current density associated with high-Q antennas. The higher energy stored in the electric and magnetic near-field components can result in higher SAR. Hence, SAR study of high-Q antennas is necessary which, if not addressed, might not comply with the SAR safety guidelines. In this paper, SAR as a function of antenna Q is investigated numerically as well as experimentally at two distinct frequencies (720 and 1700 MHz). It is found that SAR increases as a function of antenna Q when no losses are considered. But when losses are included, there is no more a clear trend between SAR and antenna Q. Thus, the final SAR values depend on total losses of the mock-up (MU).