  Searching for nearby exoplanets with direct imaging is one of the major
scientific drivers for both space and ground-based programs. While the second
generation of dedicated high-contrast instruments on 8-m class telescopes is
about to greatly expand the sample of directly imaged planets, exploring the
planetary parameter space to hitherto-unseen regions ideally down to
Terrestrial planets is a major technological challenge for the forthcoming
decades. This requires increasing spatial resolution and significantly
improving high contrast imaging capabilities at close angular separations.
Segmented telescopes offer a practical path toward dramatically enlarging
telescope diameter from the ground (ELTs), or achieving optimal diameter in
space. However, translating current technological advances in the domain of
high-contrast imaging for monolithic apertures to the case of segmented
apertures is far from trivial. SPEED (the segmented pupil experiment for
exoplanet detection) is a new instrumental facility in development at the
Lagrange laboratory for enabling strategies and technologies for high-contrast
instrumentation with segmented telescopes. SPEED combines wavefront control
including precision segment phasing architectures, wavefront shaping using two
sequential high order deformable mirrors for both phase and amplitude control,
and advanced coronagraphy struggled to very close angular separations
(PIAACMC). SPEED represents significant investments and technology developments
towards the ELT area and future spatial missions, and will offer an ideal
cocoon to pave the road of technological progress in both phasing and
high-contrast domains with complex/irregular apertures. In this paper, we
describe the overall design and philosophy of the SPEED bench.
