ESCAPADE 2

The main objective of the first ESCAPADE project was to develop new technological building blocks that would be of interest both to the defense industry, for the neutralization of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) or the interference of electronic targets, and to several civilian applications, including the medical sector. For the civil sector, and more specifically the medical field, our objective in the ESCAPADE 2 program is to develop two demonstrators based on two distinct technologies: - one is envisaged for surface medical applications, i.e. skin or subcutaneous treatments (skin cancer in particular) - the other, it will be based on a device capable to focus the electric field in a zone of interest at a few centimetres deep, for the treatment of deep or hard-to-reach tumours as those of liver, brain or spinal column. What these two devices have in common is that they use high-voltage pulse generators having sub-nanosecond duration, and that the challenge is to produce non-contact electropermeabilization of cells using these ultra-short pulses. For the defense sector, the ESCAPADE 2 project aims to compare the effects produced on electronic targets by two high-power pulse sources: an Ultra Narrow Band (UBN) source developed by ITOPP and an Ultra Wide Band (ULB) source which was the subject of the initial ESCAPADE project. For each of these two sources, the aim will be to carry out a depth analysis of their operational aspects with a view to their future use (reliability, robustness, power consumption, component cooling, maintenance, etc.). In addition, the ULB electromagnetic source will be upgraded to a higher level of technological maturity, with particular emphasis on the Marx generator and the unitary power antenna. The performance of these two pieces of equipment, which deliver very different waveforms, will be evaluated, and vulnerability tests will be carried out in an anechoic chamber at CEA Gramat, on generic targets. These could be, for example, flash bulbs as representatives of improvised explosive device detonators used in the initial ESCAPADE project, PCs, computer networks, cameras, presence detectors, 5G communication systems or drones.