New radiofrequency exposure system with real telecommunication signals

Abstract

In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of studies on biological effects of Electromagnetic (EM) fields emitted from Base Transceiver Stations (BTSs). The biological effects of generated and real telecommunication signals produced by different types of exposure systems are discussed. However, the proper exposure methods for such experiments are very limited. We successfully developed a simple and cost-effective exposure unit with real GSM/DCS/UMTS signal from BTS containing proper modulations or intermittence (continuous, interrupted). Signal processing and conditioning unit is based on a Radiofrequency (RF) repeater. The downlink signal is filtered by integrated high selectivity passband filters and amplified to a required level. The main part of exposure unit is a Faraday cage with the specimen (exposure) area measuring 150 250 mm with E-field percent deviation less than 18 %. This exposure system can be helpful in experiments with living organisms in in vivo studies and in vitro studies with normal or pathological cells as well as other micro scale structures exposed to RF EM fields from BTS.