This paper deals with the reaction of dense Metastable Intermolecular Composite (MIC) materials, which have a higher density than conventional energetic materials. The reaction of a multilayer thin film of aluminum and copper oxide has been studied by varying the Substrate material and thicknesses. The inplane speed of propagation of the reaction was experimentally determined using a time of-flight technique. The experiment shows that the reaction is completely quenched for a silicon substrate having an intervening silica layer of less than 200 nm. The speed of reaction seems to be constant at 40 m/s for silica layers with a thickness greater than 1 pm. Different substrate materials such as glass and photoresist were also used. (C) 2009 The Combustion Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.