Abstract:
It is a decade since the accidental discovery of
the room temperature explosive properties of porous silicon,
impregnated with a solid state oxidizer, was communicated
in 2002 [1]. A significant amount of research and development
have followed this announcement, leading to
an innovative explosive technology that may be on the
verge of being applied in a number of applications. It is
thus now an opportune time to reflect on the progress of
this new technology over the last decade. Just in the last
two years, there has been a significant increase in the
number of research papers reporting on new developments
and exciting new applications. In this paper the technological development of porous silicon explosive devices
is reviewed, a decade of technological research and
development documented, and the current state of the
technology evaluated. The most important aspects of the
technology are presented, device performance characteristics
are investigated and different applications are considered.
Typical device design and manufacturing techniques
are highlighted that actually resulted in reliable explosive
behavior. The information in this paper should serve as
a source of reference not only for researchers already active
in this field, but also to new researchers starting or contemplating
to exploit this technology.
