Self-Limiting Electrical Triggering for Initiating Fracture of Frangible Glass

• Main Authors: Chua, Christopher L, Limb, Scott J, Wang, Qian, Whiting, Gregory, Garner, Sean, Lujan, Rene A, Smullin, Sylvia J
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 10.10.2019
• Subjects: BASIC ELECTRIC ELEMENTS; BASIC ELECTRONIC CIRCUITRY; ELECTRIC SOLID STATE DEVICES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; ELECTRIC SWITCHES; ELECTRICITY; EMERGENCY PROTECTIVE DEVICES; PULSE TECHNIQUE; RELAYS; SELECTORS; SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES

A transient electronic device includes electronic elements (e.g., an SOI- or chip-based IC) and a trigger mechanism disposed on a frangible glass substrate. The trigger mechanism includes a switch that initiates a large trigger current through a self-limiting resistive element in response to a received trigger signal. The self-limiting resistive element includes a resistor portion that generates heat in response to the trigger current, thereby rapidly increasing the temperature of a localized (small) region of the frangible glass substrate, and a current limiting portion (e.g., a fuse) that self-limits (terminates) the trigger current after a predetermined amount of time, causing the localized region to rapidly cool down. The frangible glass substrate is engineered such that a stress profile produced by the rapid heating/cooling of the localized region generates an initial fracture force that subsequently propagates throughout the glass substrate, whereby sufficient potential energy is released to powderize the electronic elements.