*  SAR: Specific Absorption Rate is the amount quantifying Human Exposure to Wave emitted by smartphones and connected devices.

More info on What is SAR?   & on ANFR  website

Why CheckWave® label ?


"I want to know if my mobile phone has been tested or not on SAR. It is one thing to know that some regulations exist, and another one to know if this specific device, that I will use all the time close to me is ok … and to me the only way to know this, is to have it tested.”



CheckWave® aims to fulfil the gap in between the industry and end-users demands regarding public health topic such as SAR.

Societal evolutions

 

Today’s consumers are more demanding about the quality of information and details they need about what they buy. This is particularly important when it comes to health-related issues. This awareness of the general public concerning health risks, makes it a purchasing criterion in the same way as CSR, functional and performance criteria (autonomy, photo quality etc…).

 

Consumer demands for transparency are increasing and challenging the industry. Most of the time, this leads to changes but also to technical, quality and marketing innovations.


Standards and regulations are there to help and provide structure, but at times they can lag behind consumer demands. In some cases, new laws can even complement the implementation of regulations, such as the "Loi Abeille n° 2015-136" in France, which requires the display of the SAR value on sales and marketing materials for new and refurbished smartphones and connected devices. But sometimes these types of actions are not enough to achieve the final goal, and this is where labels can help fill the gap; SAR values that the Consumer may access currently are coming from one or few devices tested at the certification stage in a laboratory prior to the mass production deployment.

The issue to solve thanks to the CheckWave® label

Mass production is a cumbersome process that requires a strong ability to produce at the right cost. The evolution of the bill of materials and industrial processes of wireless devices over their lifetime is a key complex element for the industry to manage. In this case, quality control is needed to ensure that deviations are limited, especially for critical requirements as health issue with SAR value and wireless devices radio performances.

In recent years, market surveillance has shown that many smartphones exceed SAR limits in the market. Is the quality control in factory lines for mass production strong enough?

The SAR of smartphones and connected devices has never been tested in a unitary manner in the production chain due to the limitations of older SAR measurement techniques. Fortunately, some experts anticipated that this gap would not be satisfactory in the long run as this is a health-related topic that is crucial in our current corporate social responsibility (CSR). Those experts hardly worked to change the state the state of SAR measurement techniques. This was mandatory because of the acceleration of the wireless industry technology where past technologies was not efficient neither able to measure 5G and all others complex multiple emissions technologies in the real Consumer intended use.

CheckWave® supports the industry to implement this new process in production. This allows consumers to have the information that their smartphones and connected devices have been tested.

CheckWave®– 3 Key requirements

CheckWave® is a label that meets similar characteristics to ISO and is structured to be assessed by an authorized party. Like ISO standards, it covers the fundamental quality control points, including human resources skills and the quality management process, such as the specific industrial SAR process in factories and production lines, key technological aspects with the definition of tests, and industrial traceability.

Disruptive industrial innovation label for electromagnetic waves testing

Human resources competencies and process management

Specific industrial process, key technological aspects & tests definition**

Traceability

CheckWave® illustration in one production line :

CheckWave® audits are performed on a yearly basis and can be associated to intermediary control on a case by case.

** the new SAR measurement state of the art is described by D-PHASE® that covers one example of implementation. The uniqueness is to enable the tests in consumer real intended use conditions. This is only feasible if you acquire directly all the fundamentals characteristics of an electromagnetic waves (also called : RF-VMBS – Radio Frequency Vector Measurement Based System). Old SAR measurement techniques based on Amplitude measurement only with no direct Phase and no Radio Frequency measurements (such as VMBS or unique probe detector) are not accepted by CheckWave due to their technical limitations for measuring 5G and multiple emissions. Any approach can be considered on a case-by-case demand but require pure physical and metrological techniques.

CheckWave® in a nutshell

CheckWave® is based on an innovative production quality process which incorporates the essential last state of the art for measuring electromagnetic waves emitted by smartphones and connected devices.

CheckWave® informs you that your smartphones and connected devices have been tested – including Health (SAR) & emission/reception performances.

CheckWave® certificates “We got it first !”

Thierry LE GOFF – ITANCIA CEO, said :

“For more than 30 years, the Itancia group has firmly defended 3 essential pillars: ecology, energy transition and the health of its users. Pioneer in the reconditioning of technological products, through our activity Itancia Again, we are proud to have developed a unique industrial tool that allows us to measure the SAR value of smartphones directly on our reconditioning line. The CheckWave® label, a major technological initiative, certifies the quality of our work and highlights our historical know-how on the refurbished technological products market. The market, the users and the companies have from now on an obvious answer to their needs of transparency, quality and safety: Itancia Again products.”

How to get your CheckWave® certificate ?

Contact us