Portable radio handset patterns in the presence of a model of the head

This paper examines the principal plane radiation patterns of a portable radio handset at 850 MHz operating near a model of the human head. The handset and head are solved by the finite-difference time-domain method. To validate the computed patterns, they are compared with measured radiation patterns, with excellent agreement for the handset alone and very good agreement for both the handset near the box model of the head, and the handset near the sphere head model. FDTD is then used to find the principal plane patterns of the handset near a realistic model of the head based on anatomical cross-sections. The principal plane patterns of the handset and anatomical head are shown to be very similar to those of the handset near a sphere of size comparable to the head.