A micro-chip exploding foil initiator based on printed circuit board technology

Abstract

Conventional exploding foil initiator (EFI) in ignition or detonation applications hosts many performance advantages, but was hindered by the bulky, inaccurate, inefficient and expensive shortcomings. We highlight a novel micro-chip exploding foil initiator (McEFI) using printed circuit board (PCB) technology. The structural parameters were determined based on energy coupling relationship at the component interfaces. Next, the prototype McEFI has been batch-fabricated using PCB technology, with a monolithic structure of 7.0 mm (l) × 4.5 mm (w) × 4.0 mm (δ). As expected, this PCB-McEFI illustrated the successful firing validations for explosives pellets. This paper has addressed the cost problem in both military munitions and civil markets wherever reliable, insensitive and timing-dependent ignition or detonation are involved.