Theoretical and Experimental Investigation of Semiconductor Junction Igniter

There have always been concerns for operation and service safety of electroexplosive devices (EEDs) in an electromagnetic environment. To discuss new EEDs, semiconductor junction igniter (SJI) with p-n junction is researched theoretically and experimentally in this paper. The theoretical analysis indicates that N-doped concentration is the key factor dominating SJI performances. In electroexplosive experiments, the SJIs are fired with a capacitor charged to 160 V. Results show that it goes through four stages during the electroexplosive process, and the highest temperature exceeds 6000 K. Meanwhile, function mechanisms have been analyzed. In the safety tests, none of the samples fired with a 25-kV electrostatic voltage, and the all-fire radio frequency (RF) input power is 13.07 W, which are both behavior better than that of the polysilicon igniters. Electrostatic and RF safety can be improved with SJI parameter adjustments.