Comment This IS about exploding computer chips! (Score 1) 183
From the article:
"Let's say you have a computer chip collecting information on the ground and 10 minutes later you want it to flip over, or self destruct, or ignite so that it will show up on an infrared or night-vision camera," says Sailor. "What we've shown in this paper is that a small voltage can be used to ignite this chip, so you don't need any devices other than the tiny voltages you already have flowing through the electronic circuits of the chip. You just need to send them through the part of the chip that contains the blasting cap."
"Other possible security or military applications of this explosive might be the construction of information-collecting devices that self-destruct. "Let's say you've built a secret electronic device that you don't want someone to take apart or to find out how it works," says Sailor. "You could build a self-destruct mechanism into the computer chip that would basically destroy it and any information that had been stored on it."
"Let's say you have a computer chip collecting information on the ground and 10 minutes later you want it to flip over, or self destruct, or ignite so that it will show up on an infrared or night-vision camera," says Sailor. "What we've shown in this paper is that a small voltage can be used to ignite this chip, so you don't need any devices other than the tiny voltages you already have flowing through the electronic circuits of the chip. You just need to send them through the part of the chip that contains the blasting cap."
"Other possible security or military applications of this explosive might be the construction of information-collecting devices that self-destruct. "Let's say you've built a secret electronic device that you don't want someone to take apart or to find out how it works," says Sailor. "You could build a self-destruct mechanism into the computer chip that would basically destroy it and any information that had been stored on it."
