ABSTRACT The present study investigated for the first time the characteristic length scale and chemical dynamics of steady and quasi-steady detonation waves propagating in silane-nitrous oxide-nitrogen mixtures, which are widely used in the semi-conductor industry and can be a promising additive for propulsion application. The conditions investigated cover the following ranges: equivalence ratio = 0.5–5; initial pressure = 10–1000 kPa; nitrogen mole fraction = 0–0.8; initial temperature = 300 K. The energy released by the formation of SiO(s) and SiO2(s) was taken into account whereas the phase change from gas to liquid/solid was neglected. It was found that detonation in these silane-based mixtures is characterized by unusually large Mach numbers which result in up to 128.5 times pressure jump across the leading shock, and few micrometer-long induction zone length. For steady planar waves, the shortest induction distances were identified in the range = 2–4, while for curved detonations, the most resilient wave to curvature-induced losses was identified at around 1.5 for undiluted mixtures. Such phenomena are the results of the enhanced formation of SiO(s) under fuel-rich conditions, which also contributes to stabilizing the detonation wave, though the mixture should still be classified as unstable, according to traditional stability parameters. Detailed thermo-chemical analyses were performed to investigate the chemical dynamics. The study of the heat release per reaction shows the dominant contributions of R65: H+N2O=N2+OH, R207: SiH4(+M)=H2+SiH2(+M), R377: N2O+SiH2=H2SiO+N2, R379: N2O+Si=N2+SiO, and R400: 2SiO = 2SiO(s). The dominant reactions for heat release are not modified by the curvature-induced loss according to sensitivity analyses.