Metasurface-Based Phone Case for the SAR Reduction of the 5G Mobile Phones

The prolonged radiation exposure from mobile phone antennas may cause several health problems. In this article, an innovative method derived from a metasurface-based phone case is introduced to reduce the electromagnetic (EM) exposure from mobile phones. A metasurface consisting of 2 x 3 unit cells, is directly printed on a commercially available phone case. The effective utilization of the slotted square metallic metasurface with the phone cover, the EM exposure, expressed as specific absorption rate (SAR) is significantly reduced by more than 26%. Moreover, the overall performance of the mobile antenna including operating bandwidth and gain is also improved using the proposed metasurface phone case. To validate the design concept, SAR is analyzed for the mobile antenna with and without the proposed phone case with the mannequin model that closely resembles a human head. The measurement data shows that the SAR value is reduced in the human head from 1.387 W/kg to 0.985 W/kg using the metasurface-integrated phone case. The proposed method not only provides an effective way to suppress mobile phone radiation exposure but also invites other researchers to explore metasurface-based phone cases to minimize the health risks from radiation exposure to cell phones and other handheld devices.