A micro initiator realized by reactive Ni/Al nanolaminates

This study described a micro initiator realized by reactive Ni/Al nanolaminates. A self-propagating reaction can be triggered in the Ni/Al film by applying a DC voltage of 1.5 V. This exothermic reaction can raise the temperature of the film (10 mu m in thickness) surface to as high as 622 K. The measured ignition power to start the self-propagating reaction in the film was 3 mW with an ignition delay of around 0.63 s. The small ignition energy required and the large energy output make the Ni/Al film superior to the current resistive heater based initiators. Numerical simulation results demonstrated that different temperatures can be achieved by simply alternating the film thickness and the localization of high temperature exposure was realized to avoid unintentional fire of adjacent initiators. These findings were confirmed by the experiment using thermal indicators.