Black Hills Nanosystems is developing a family of nanotechnology- based EFI devices to improve the safety and effectiveness of munitions. These devices are mass fabricated, leveraging processes from the semiconductor industry.

Conventional EFI devices offer many safety advantages, but their electronics are often cost-prohibitive for many munitions applications. Black Hills Nanosystems is developing low-cost, high-voltage firing electronics to be integrated with EFI devices. This work is currently under the direction of the U.S. Army.

The other key area of focus is on packaging. Robust, hermetic packaging is preferred for military applications, but often also cost-prohibitive. We have developed wafer-scale sealing processes, which can dramatically reduce overall cost of the device. Packaging of S&A devices are performed under the direction of the U.S. Navy.

High production yields have been reached for our products, which have been demonstrated and delivered to the Department of Defense. Our devices and packaging processes are extremely clean and avoid organic contaminants. The microfabricated seals have been demonstrated to survive harsh environment conditions.

Exploding Foil Initiator(EFI) mounted on test board