Many miniature electro-explosive devices (EEDs) are fired (activated) by the rapid discharge of the energy stored in a storage capacitor into the bridgewire of the EED by the closure of a switch, typically a Field Effect Transistor (FET). In many designs, the capacitor is not able to be fully discharged because as the capacitor voltage drops (as the discharge progresses), the gate-to-source voltage across the FET drops below the turn-on threshold, essentially turning off the switch. Fully discharging the capacitor is desirable to increase the reliability of firing the EED, but a method is needed to achieve this in a low-cost fashion utilizing a minimum number of components, particularly in applications where the volume available for the firing circuit is limited.
What is needed, therefore, are techniques for fully discharging a storage capacitor.