AN INTRODUCTION TO SEMICONDUCTOR INITIATION OF ELECTROEXPLOSIVE DEVICES

Conventional electroexplosive devices (EED) commonly use a very small metal bridgewire to ignite explosive materials i.e. pyrotechnics, primary and secondary explosives. The use of semiconductor devices to replace “hot-wire” resistance heating elements in automotive safety systems pyrotechnic devices has been under development for several years. In a typical 1 amp/1 watt electroexplosive devices, ignition takes place a few milliseconds after a current pulse of at least 25 mJ is applied to the bridgewire. In contrast, as for a SCB devices, ignition takes place in a few tens of microseconds and only require approximately one-tenth the input energy of a conventional electroexplosive devices. Typically, when SCB device is driven by a short (20 $\mu\textrm{s}$), low energy pulse (less than 5 mJ), the SCB produces a hot plasma that ignites explosive materials. The advantages and disadvantages of this technology are strongly dependent upon the particular technology selected. To date, three distinct technologies have evolved, each of which utilizes a hot, silicon plasma as the pyrotechnic initiation element. These technologies are 1.) Heavily doped silicon as the resistive heating initiation mechanism, 2.) Tungsten enhanced silicon which utilizes a chemically vapor deposited layer of tungsten as the initiation element, and 3.) a junction diode, fabricated with standard CMOS processes, which creates the initial thermal environment by avalanche breakdown of the diode. This paper describes the three technologies, discusses the advantages and disadvantages of each as they apply to electroexplosive devises, and recommends a methodology for selection of the best device for a particular system environment. The important parameters in this analysis are: All-Fire energy, All-Fire voltage, response time, ease of integration with other semiconductor devices, cost (overall system cost), and reliability. The potential for significant cost savings by integrating several safety functions into the initiator makes this technology worthy of attention by the safety system designer.