Energetic nanomaterials: prospects for integration in microsystems

Until the 1980s-1990s, energetic materials were mainly used in military and space applications, with a few civil applications such as mining.

In the early 1990s, the idea emerged of integrating energetic materials into silicon microsystems, with a view to achieving local micro-actuation in extremely small volumes (less than mm ³ ) and with relatively high forces (~ 0.1 N).

Today's applications are more demanding, requiring the creation of new generations of energetic materials strictly designed for microsystem applications: we need to ensure both energetic performance and technological compatibility. Against this backdrop, the emergence of nanotechnologies is opening up new, as yet unexplored prospects for energetic materials: the creation of high-performance nanostructured materials, i.e. where composition and structure are controlled at the nanometric, if not molecular, scale. We can also hope to create energetic materials with controlled chemical and thermal decomposition. The field to be explored is extremely vast.

This can be usefully reduced by giving priority to energetic materials already used in microelectronics. The dossier offers a comprehensive exploration of the potential contribution of nanotechnologies in the field of integrable energetic materials, based on the results of the first published research projects.