Development of a monolithic micro chip exploding foil initiator based on low temperature co-fired ceramic

The performances of exploding foil initiator has been improved in terms of high safety and high reliability over the other electrical initiators. This work develops a monolithic micro-chip exploding foil initiator (McEFI) based on low temperature co-fired ceramic. This McEFI has a really monolithic construction without any adhesive or bonding parts, which endows it with the inherent benefits of large volume/low-cost production and high-reproducibility. Using this method, it can eliminate complicated fabrication processes such as precise machining, aligning and bonding that are inevitable in conventional manufacturing process of EFIs. Its primary characteristics for electrical burst, flyer acceleration and detonating capability are presented and discussed. Results show that McEFI could reliably detonate hexanitrostilbene at 2.5 kV/0.22 μF, and its performance could be improved by optimizing design parameters.