The semiconductor bridge (SCB) consists of a heavily doped polysilicon, which generates plasma upon submission of an electrical energy to ignite the explosive pressed against it. The electrical energy is deposited into the semiconductor bridge when an electrical voltage is applied to it. A conventional CMOS process was adopted to fabricate SCB chips. In an effort to elucidate the plasma generation mechanism of SCB, the currents were forced to flow through polysilicon bridge of 1Ω while voltage drop was measured to obtain the in-situ power dissipation of the bridge. Typical behaviors of two peaks in voltage-time curve were observed. It is inferred from the photo-diode signal that the second peak in the voltage curve results from the plasma generation of SCB.
The breakdown voltage of electrical discharge for high pressure proved that the semiconductor bridge is an effective plasma generator. The experimental data for no-fire condition, directly related to the safety of the explosive system, is compared with the theoretical data from modeling. The soldering is studied to replace the wire bonding as a new package of SCB.
