Journal of Biomedical Systems & Emerging Technologies

Electroshock Weapons (ESWs) are a commonly used tool in the escalation of force arsenal for law enforcement and the military around the world. The ESWs provides a high-voltage low- current electrical shock (a pulse burst) that can temporarily incapacitate its target (typically a human). This shock is usually of sufficient energy to cause the individual to become temporarily incapacitated for up to a few seconds after the discharge is completed. It is important to accurately know the output of the ESW because of the serious safety ramifications if the ESW fails to operate properly. However, these transient ESW pulse outputs may have frequency content exceeding 100 MHz while simultaneously have durations greater than 10 s, and the impedance of the target may vary amongst targets and may vary between pulses of a given pulse burst for a given target. These facts greatly increase the challenges in performing high-fidelity reproducible measurements of the ESW transient signals. To ensure that the ESW operates properly requires special measurement instruments because of the bandwidth, duration, and amplitude of the output signals. Moreover, accurate measurement capability supports modelling and subsequent understanding of the physiological effects of ESW exposure.

We examined that the physical processes of an electrostatic discharge occurring on the applied voltage of less than 330 V and at gap lengths of several micrometers by measuring the discharge current and electric fields. As a result, it was confirmed that the conventional Paschen’s law cannot be applied to the characteristics of discharges on the applied voltage of less than 330 V in the gap lengths of less than 4 μm in both cases of approaching electrode and fixed electrode. The breakdown process was explained in terms of the equation describes the relationship between high density electrons and electric-field strength that is applied for high electric-field. The proposed equation expressed both the conventional Paschen’s law and the breakdown process below the Paschen minimum.