Taking in account the electromagnetic pulses in study of a material or system

High altitude nuclear bursts generate extremely short and large magnitude electromagnetic pulses (EMP). Electronic circuits which are commonly used nowadays are directly threatened by such an effect. This effect is so important that it has the characteristic to cover large areas, as large as a whole country. For an equipment or a system to stand against such an electromagnetic threat without being considerably disturbed, it is advised to take into account particular protections from the outset of the design phase and during the production phase, that is to say to ensure its hardening. Taking into account and ensuring the EMP protection of an equipment or a system, the Telecommunications Division (DTC) of Thomson-CSF has been devoting to for a number of years. The experience acquired through various studies and production work has allowed a thorough definition of the main steps required in an EMP hardening task: - hardening goal definition; - hardening study and design; - hardening carrying out; - design and production of EMP environment simulators; - hardening validation; - maintenance. This paper describes for each one of these steps: - which approach is undertaken; - which questions are raised; - which documents to constitute