Thin Film Thermal Battery Igniters for Ballistic Missile Defense Systems

Missiles of today are electronic intensive: control systems, navigation systems, and targeting systems all have components on-board the missile. These systems require a power source that is capable of delivering large amounts of power throughout flight of the missile. The power source must be capable of being stored for decades without loss of power or performance while being reliably activated within milliseconds. Currently, thermal batteries are widely used to achieve these objectives. Thermal batteries are stored with the electrolyte in a solid state; preventing chemical reactivity and leakage as is common with wet electrolytic batteries. To activate the thermal batteries, igniters are electrically charged causing hot embers to shoot out into the core of the battery. These embers ignite flammable material causing the electrolyte to activate the battery. The reliability of the igniters determines whether or not the battery is activated to power the missile targeting, navigation, and control systems. Phase I demonstrated the feasibility of relatively simple thin film igniters that are fabricated using low cost PVD processing. During phase II, the thin film design and process will be optimized, a FEA Predictive Model will be completed, and a Prototype Production System will be developed and demonstrated.