Biological and sanitary effects of high-power microwave ultra-wideband (HPM/UWB) signals

Systems emitting High-Power Microwave Ultra-Wideband (HPM/UWB) pulses are developed for both military and civilian applications. The knowledge of the biological effects of this type of radiation is crucial for the protection of the staffs involved in the development of UWB systems but also with respect to their future applications. The French-German Research Institute of Saint-Louis has initiated a research program in this area. This program was firstly dedicated to a bibliographical survey of damage mechanisms, dosimetry and biological effects. In view of the results, it was considered necessary to measure the HPM/UWB pulse propagation in tissue-mimicking phantom materials as the studies performed on this topic were mostly numerical ones. For this purpose, D-dot probes were used to measure the electric displacement field and were integrated into materials that possess the dispersive dielectric properties of human soft tissues over the microwave frequency range, from 100 MHz to 3 GHz. This paper presents the results of the bibliographical survey and of these experiments. Additionally, the impact of HPM/UWB pulses on Active Implementable Medical Devices (AIMDs) is also examined.