High Temperature, High Energy Density Multilayer Power Capacitors

Safety assessments of current and future energetic materials require a range of tests, one of which is the determination of the electrostatic discharge (ESD) sensitivity to ignition and propagation. There is currently no standard for circuit design, sparkenergy, sample size/configuration or determination of a successful test. The need exists for a standard ESD testing machine and related testing methodology to allow accurate and reproducible ESD measurements of energetic materials. The methodology shouldaccount for all credible ESD spark sources, such as humans, charged metallic objects (tools) and charged energetic material. In addition to standardizing the ESD machine and methodology, an improved method of determining the energetic materials behaviorafter an ESD event is required. The proposed detection system is based on an optical method which provides accurate recording of the events leading to material ignition. Both visible and infrared