Photoflash lamp array having high voltage shorting type flash lamps and radiation sensitive switching elements

Abstract

Abstract Radiation sensitive switches which undergo thermal decomposition to physically interrupt the circuit path when activated are operatively associated with a plurality of high voltage flash lamps utilizing a shorting primer material to provide an electrical path across said lamps after flashing as the means of enabling the flash lamps to be sequentially flashed in a high-voltage activated multiple flash lamp array. The thermal decomposition of the radiation sensitive switching elements produces self-destruction of the switch elements per se and which can be accompanied by further destruction of the underlying substrate on which the switch elements have been deposited. The switching elements are deposited on a circuit board member and electrically connected in the sequential lamp firing circuitry at circuit board locations adjacent to the associated flash lamps. The desired thermal action accompanying switch operation is enhanced in a preferred embodiment by constructing the circuit board from an organic polymer material which melts or decomposes and locating the switching elements at circuit locations wherein the underlying substrate has a thickness less than the substrate thickness elsewhere in order to produce holes in the circuit board member itself as the means of permanently interrupting the electrical path.

Inventors

• 👤 Dominic A. Cusano
• 👤 Harold F. Webster

Bibliographic Details