A micro initiator realized by reactive Ni/Al nanolaminates for MEMS applications

This study investigates 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 may raise the film (10 μm in thickness) temperature to as high as 622 K. The measured ignition power of the film was 3 mW with an ignition delay of around 0.63 s. The small ignition energy required (1.89 mJ) and the large energy output (1.86 J) made 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.