Addressable ignition stage for enabling a detonator/ignitor
View Patent ↗The present invention is directed toward an addressable ignition stage which produces an output sufficient to detonate a secondary explosive, generally. The present invention comprises addressability and ignition functions that may be used together or separately to incorporate a high-power resistor with a thermally conductive substrate allowing for operation at high temperatures for ignition. The ignition stage is amendable to high volume production, exhibits a high degree of reliability, robustness and operational dependability for use alone or configurable into existing technology.
1. An addressable ignition stage device configured to actuate a primary or secondary explosive following voltage breakdown in a detonator/ignitor comprising:
voltage accepting terminals;
one or more conductors;
one or more rectifier diodes;
said one or more rectifier diodes directing activating polarity of applied voltage;
one to a plurality of voltage standoff devices;
said voltage standoff device or devices having a standoff voltage, threshold voltage, or trigger current;
said voltage standoff device or devices comprising a thyristor voltage standoff device or devices configured to allow current flow to an ignition element only upon reaching voltage breakdown by exceeding said standoff voltage, threshold voltage, or trigger current; and
said ignition element firing upon receiving current step from voltage breakdown.
2. The addressable ignition stage device of claim 1 wherein said addressable ignition stage device further comprises one or more radio frequency beads;
said radio frequency bead or beads restricting flow of high frequency current due to radio transmitters near the detonator/ignitor to prevent inadvertent detonation.
3. The addressable ignition stage device of claim 2 wherein said thyristor comprises one thyristor standoff device to a plurality of thyristor voltage standoff devices each having a standoff voltage, threshold voltage, or trigger current, divided proportionately between standoff devices, to protect input and output circuitry from transient voltages.
4. The addressable ignition stage device of claim 2 , where said radio frequency beads are ferrite beads for a higher series resistance in the presence of radio frequency (RF).
5. The addressable ignition stage device of claim 1 wherein said ignition element is a high-power resistor with a nichrome resistive of 50Ω.
6. The addressable ignition stage device of claim 1 wherein said thyristor voltage standoff devices are in series or parallel wherein each may have the same or different threshold standoff voltages.
7. The addressable ignition stage device of claim 1 wherein said addressable ignition stage device is coupled with and adhered to a thermally conductive substrate allowing for operation at high temperatures.
8. The addressable ignition stage device of claim 1 , wherein said addressable ignition stage device is configured on a circuit board which is a single sided, dual sided, or multi-sided edge connector with terminals configured to couple to a separate connector harness.
9. The addressable ignition stage device of claim 8 whereby said connector harness is configured with opposing contacts that short when the circuit board is not inserted whereby shorting connectors keep the addressable ignition stage device in a known safe state.
10. The addressable ignition stage device of claim 8 whereby said connector harness is designed with built-in mechanical retention and/or keying for insertion of a circuit board.
11. The addressable ignition stage device of claim 8 whereby said connector harness is designed such that only one side, both sides or multiple sides are used for selective firing, redundancy, robustness, or a combination thereof.
12. The addressable ignition stage device of claim 1 , whereby said addressable ignition stage device may be RFID tagged for location tracking, identification, authentication, spatial locating, timing, monitoring, determination of physical state, trackability or a combination thereof.
13. The addressable ignition stage device of claim 1 , whereby said addressable ignition stage devices may be configured in series, in close proximity or coupled to a secondary explosive for simultaneous firing or detonations in succession.