TY - GEN
T1 - A Platform for Investigating Pulsed Vacuum Arc in Micro-cathodic Arc Thruster
AU - Wang, Zhi
AU - Han, Ruoyu
AU - Geng, Jinyue
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 IEEE.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - A platform used for researching the pulsed vacuum arc and its erosion in the application of micro-cathodic arc thruster, has been designed, established, and commissioned. This article describes the design and preliminary experiments of the platform. A programmable high-voltage pulsed-power source is used to drive a microsecond discharge in the vacuum. In the initial experiment, a copper block is used as anode, and an aluminum one as cathode, with a distance of 2 mm on a A12 O3 plate base. Vacuum discharges are initiated at 10-3 Pa, and diagnoses including electro-physical parameters and high-speed self-emission images are applied. According to the experimental results, the arc development stage and the influence of the circuit parameter pulse width and current limiting resistance size on the discharge are preliminary clarified. The platform has been shown to be capable of performing micro-cathodic arc thruster arc experiments. These results also provide the potential for further applications of this platform, such as research on arcs, electrodes, and conductive films of micro-cathode arc thrusters.
AB - A platform used for researching the pulsed vacuum arc and its erosion in the application of micro-cathodic arc thruster, has been designed, established, and commissioned. This article describes the design and preliminary experiments of the platform. A programmable high-voltage pulsed-power source is used to drive a microsecond discharge in the vacuum. In the initial experiment, a copper block is used as anode, and an aluminum one as cathode, with a distance of 2 mm on a A12 O3 plate base. Vacuum discharges are initiated at 10-3 Pa, and diagnoses including electro-physical parameters and high-speed self-emission images are applied. According to the experimental results, the arc development stage and the influence of the circuit parameter pulse width and current limiting resistance size on the discharge are preliminary clarified. The platform has been shown to be capable of performing micro-cathodic arc thruster arc experiments. These results also provide the potential for further applications of this platform, such as research on arcs, electrodes, and conductive films of micro-cathode arc thrusters.
KW - circuit parameter
KW - electric propulsion
KW - pulsed vacuum arc
KW - vacuum discharge plasmas
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85137326957&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/CIEEC54735.2022.9846778
DO - 10.1109/CIEEC54735.2022.9846778
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85137326957
T3 - Proceedings of 2022 IEEE 5th International Electrical and Energy Conference, CIEEC 2022
SP - 3868
EP - 3871
BT - Proceedings of 2022 IEEE 5th International Electrical and Energy Conference, CIEEC 2022
PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
T2 - 5th IEEE International Electrical and Energy Conference, CIEEC 2022
Y2 - 27 May 2022 through 29 May 2022
ER -