Abstract: A piezoid power supply used to supply power to the electronics located in a fast moving projectile which contains a programmable projectile fuze contains multiple layers of piezoid bulk material. By using multiple layers of piezoid bulk material, instead of just one layer, the capacitance of the piezoid is increased. As a result, less energy is lost when the piezoid energy is transferred to the fuze electronics. In addition, by applying a setback force to the piezoid of such magnitude that the piezoid operates in the nonlinear region, the energy output from the piezoid is increased even more. By both incorporating a multitude of very thin layers in a piezoceramic and over-stressing the piezoid into the depolarization region, an improvement of almost three orders of magnitude in energy generation from set-back force is realized when compared to operation in the linear region.

Abstract: Apparatus for measuring projectile muzzle velocity with an accuracy of .+-.0.1% is mounted in an easily portable muzzle attachment. It operates in the following manner. A washer shaped permanent magnet is positioned on a projectile body. A position sensor containing two inductive coils is located inside the muzzle. When the projectile is fired, the magnet mounted on the projectile passes through the inductive coils, inducing a voltage in each coil. Each voltage is amplified and then fed into hysteresis and zero crossing comparators corresponding to each inductive coil. The zero crossing comparator detects when the induced voltage crosses zero. The hysteresis comparator will gate out any noise induced zero crossings. The two zero crossings are used to start and stop a digital counter which generates a velocity count signal that corresponds to the velocity of the projectile. Further noise interference rejection is obtained by encasing the muzzle extension in a magnetic metal.

Abstract: An ultra-low power, fast start fuze oscillator contained in a fast moving projectile which contains a programmable projectile fuze. It is an RC oscillator which uses a low power comparator, three biasing resistors, a timing resistor and a timing capacitor to produce an output frequency as low as 8 kHz with a frequency error of less than .+-.0.1% over a -40.degree. C. to +60.degree. C. temperature range. At the same time, it is capable of surviving a high g environment (30,000 g to 60,000 g) in a reliable manner. Furthermore, the oscillator draws a very low amount of power, using a maximum of about 20 uA of current and has a start-up time limited to a maximum of 1.5 msec. An additional circuit can be connected to the positive supply voltage input of a lower current version of an RC oscillator to jump start the RC oscillator, thereby improving start-up time to 1.5 msec while reducing the current drain to 15 uA.

Abstract: An accurate, yet ultra low power fuse electronics is presented in which two methods are used to reduce power consumption in the fuze electronics. First, the fuze uses low power 3.3 volt logic chips ("LV" series or equivalent CMOS logic chips) along with switches that have low input capacitance and low quiescent current. Second, a circuit design is used which, while still accomplishing the objects of the invention, drastically reduces the number of electronic elements required. When a projectile is fired from a weapon, a fire control system transmits a signal to a data conditioner located on the projectile. The data conditioner demodulates and filters the signal, producing a burst time data word which is transmitted to a microcontroller. The data conditioner is comprised of passive components, therefore no supply power is required. The microcontroller decodes the data word and also uses the data word to correct any error in the high and low speed fuze oscillators.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for firing a firearm. A trigger is pulled which causes a hammer to rotate away from an electrical power source. After the hammer passes its maximum position, it is released by the trigger releases it, thereby causing the hammer to strike the electrical power source. The force from the hammer causes electrical energy to flow from the electrical power source to an electrically activated primer, thereby igniting the primer.

Abstract: A self-correcting inductive fuze setter is used to detect and correct any errors that might occur during transmission and reception of a velocity corrected time data word so that a projectile will be detonated at the proper time. The self-correcting inductive fuze setter uses an error detection/correction algorithm to create an encoded data word from the velocity corrected time data word. Next, the encoded data word is used to digitally modulate a carrier signal, which is then transmitted from the muzzle of the weapon to the projectile. The received carrier signal is then demodulated by a demodulator/filter and decoded by a decoder located on the projectile producing the original velocity corrected time data word. In addition, the self-correcting inductive fuze setter will measure the error in both the high-speed fuze oscillator and the low-speed fuze oscillator located on the projectile and adjust the transmitted data word to account for these errors.