Perhaps not an explosion within the meaning of applicable California statutes.
Looking at the pix that show chip fragmentation, I don't see evidence of reactive chemistry. No melted edges, no deposition of combustion products, no missing material that would suggest propulsive transport incident to a micro explosion caused by detonation of a tiny blob of, for example, lead styphnate or some other primer-like compound.
Exploding wires are an old technology, and don't involve "...chemically reactive material...". Think old-fashioned fuses, but with faster dynamics.
Maybe they have an on-board supercap that they dump into a buried trace, producing a brief high temperature copper plasma and a shock wave that breaks the chip?
Interesting technology, would like to know how they do the physical destruction.
Very nearly. Overcurrent spike to Vcc. Simple and obvious. (How'd they get a patent? GCHQ already certified drives that do this, from Stonewood? They use the Eclypt 600 series for their own TOP SECRET data.)
Looking at the pix that show chip fragmentation, I don't see evidence of reactive chemistry. No melted edges, no deposition of combustion products, no missing material that would suggest propulsive transport incident to a micro explosion caused by detonation of a tiny blob of, for example, lead styphnate or some other primer-like compound.
Exploding wires are an old technology, and don't involve "...chemically reactive material...". Think old-fashioned fuses, but with faster dynamics.
Maybe they have an on-board supercap that they dump into a buried trace, producing a brief high temperature copper plasma and a shock wave that breaks the chip?
Interesting technology, would like to know how they do the physical destruction.