Electronic article surveillance (EAS) devices are widely used in most stores as anti-theft systems. In this work, the compliance with international guidelines in the human exposure to these devices is analysed by using the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. Two sets of high resolution numerical phantoms of different size (REMCOM/Hershey and Virtual Family), simulating adult and child bodies, are exposed to a 10 MHz pass-by panel-type EAS consisting of two overlapping current-carrying coils. Two different relative positions between the EAS and the body (frontal and lateral exposures), which imply the exposure of different parts of the body at different distances, have been considered. In all cases, induced current densities in tissues of the central nervous system and specific absorption rates (SARs) are calculated to be compared with the limits from the guidelines. Results show that induced current densities are lower in the case of adult models as compared with those of children in both lateral and frontal exposures. Maximum SAR values calculated in lateral exposure are significantly lower than those calculated in frontal exposure, where the EAS-body distance is shorter. Nevertheless, in all studied cases, with an EAS driving current of 4 A rms, maximum induced current and SAR values are below basic restrictions.

Manipulation of cells using nonuniform electric fields is an area of growing interest for biological and medical applications. The article presents a numerical analysis of fields and dielectrophoretic forces in typical electrode configurations, overcoming some limitations of previous approaches. An accurate version of the boundary element method is employed to compute the field distributions very precisely. Parallel bar, sawtooth, and castellated electrode shapes are analyzed. The effect of a dielectric coating is discussed.