Low impedence slapper detonator and feed-through assembly

Abstract

A slapper detonator includes an explosive pellet disposed within a detonator housing and a bridge chip disposed within a pocket defined between a pair of printed circuit boards. One of the printed circuit boards is disposed between the bridge chip and the explosive pellet and includes an opening centered over the bridge element to permit a flyer to accelerate before impacting the explosive pellet. The printed circuit board with the opening also establishes a connection between the bridge contact pads and metalized patterns or pads on the other printed circuit board which are, in turn, connected with metalized patterns or pads on an opposite side of the board. Various input contacts can be attached to the metalized pads, including an adapter board which converts side-by-side pads to concentric pads to permit coaxial connectors to be used. The slapper detonator can be used with a hermetic feed-through assembly having a feed-through housing which connects to a fuze housing in hermetically sealed relation and output contacts which mate in a detachable manner with the input contacts on the slapper detonator to permit removal of the detonator from the fuze electronics for periodic inspection and testing.