WEAPONIZATION OF OPTICALLY TRIGGERED BULK SEMICONDUCTOR SWITCHES FOR PROGRAMMABLE HIGH PERFORMANCE FUZING APPLICATIONS

PREVIOUS WORK HAS SHOWN THAT THE BULK AVALANCHE SEMICONDUCTOR SWITCH (BASS) DRAMATICALLY ENHANCES THE CAPABILITIES OF EXPLODING FOIL INITIATORS (EFI). THE VERY HIGH POWER DENSITY CAPABILITY OF THE BASS ALLOWS VERY SMALL SWITCHES. THE VERY FAST RISETIME AND LOW ON-STATE RESISTANCE MAKE THE SWITCH VERY EFFICIENT. THE LOW JITTER (PICOSECONDS) ALLOWS ARRAYS OF EFIS TO BE INITIATED SIMULTANEOUSLY OR IN ACCURATELY TIMED SEQUENCE FOR PROGRAMMABLE ORDNANCE. THE BASS ALLOWS THE ENTIRE EFI SYSTEM TO BE TESTED FOR CONTINUITY AND INDUCTANCE WITHOUT DISCONNECTING THE BRIDGE. THE OBJECTIVE OF PHASE I IS TO DEMONSTRATE A CRITICAL PHASE (THERMAL ENVIRONMENT) OF THE WEAPONIZATIONABILITY OF THE BASS AND TO PROVIDE A PROGRAM FRAMEWORK FOR EXTENDING THIS DEVELOPMENT TO A WEAPONS QUALIFIABLE SWITCH. ANALYSIS WILL BE USED TO DETERMINE THE EXPECTED OPERATING ENVELOPE OF THE BASS SWITCH IN ANTICIPATED WEAPON ENVIRONMENTS. PHASE I EXPERIMENTS WILL DEMONSTRATE BASS PERFORMANCE OVER THE TEMPERATURE RANGE -55 DEG C TO +150 DEG C. AFTER ANALYSIS AND EXPERIMENTAL VERIFICATION, A QUALIFICATION PROGRAM WILL BE PROPOSED FOR PHASE II WHICH WILL RESULT IN A SWITCH READY FOR WEAPONS APPLICATIONS.