Improved Reliability and Producibility of Ballistic Missile Defense Systems through Highly Controlled Deposition of Critical Battery Components

The missiles used by the military 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 and easily activated within milliseconds. Currently, thermal batteries are widely used to achieve these goals. Thermal batteries are stored with the electrolyte in a solid state; preventing chemical reactivity and associated current leakage that is prevalent in common 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 within the battery causing the electrolyte to activate the battery. The reliability of these battery igniters determine whether or not the battery is activated and in turn determines whether or not a missile will have its necessary targeting, navigation, and control systems. Novel concepts for increasing the reliability of these battery igniters are proposed that use low cost physical vapor deposition of one of the critical igniter components.