High-Resolution Model of Human Skin Appendages for Electromagnetic Dosimetry at Millimeter Waves

International audienceThe purpose of this work is to evaluate local power and electric field distributions inside high-resolution 3D anatomical CAD models of cutaneous appendages at 60 GHz upcoming for 5G/6G. The microscale resolution models of cutaneous nerves, lymphatics, pilosebaceous unit, microvasculature, eccrine sweat glands, Meissner corpuscle and Pacinian corpuscle were designed based on morphometric data and microscopic images. The Maxwell's and Hanai's mixture equations were employed to retrieve the complex permittivity of cutaneous appendages based on their free water content. The cutaneous appendages were exposed to a uniform plane wave. The finite element method was used to compute the power loss density (PLD) and internal electric field (E). The results indicate that the maximal PLD in cutaneous appendages occurred for E polarized along their longest dimension. Higher peak PLD was observed in high water content cutaneous appendages such as acrosyringium (45%), epidermal axon (37.9%), Pacinian corpuscle (32.5%), blood capillary (30.6%), lymph capillary (20%) and arrector pili muscle (13.5%) compared to the surrounding skin. Higher E was detected in low water content hair with the peak E 45.1% greater than in surrounding skin. The interfaces of the cutaneous appendages also manifested a boost (23.8%-60.9%) in PLD compared to the surrounding skin. Detailed physical interpretation of observed phenomena is provided in the article. These results provide an insight into microscale power deposition in skin at frequencies upcoming for wireless communications