Prediction and optimization of thrust performance from plasma diagnostics in the inductively coupled plasma of an RF ion thruster

Li, Yueh-Heng; Chen, Yi-Chien; Liu, Shengwen; Aslan, A. R.

doi:10.1016/j.actaastro.2023.03.038

Cited by 7 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 32 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…[10] Moreover, RIT has a long lifespan and performs well at low powers, which can be attributed to its excellent combination of electrodeless discharge, high control accuracy, fast response, and homogeneous beam. [11,12] The ionization chamber of RIT is an inductively coupled plasma (ICP) source with cylindrical geometry, in which electromagnetic field accelerates free electrons to break down neutral gas to generate the plasma. As the RF power varies, ICP usually exhibits two distinct regimes, the so-called E (electrostatic) mode at low RF power for capacitive coupling and the H (electromagnetic) mode at high RF power for inductive coupling.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Power transfer efficiency in an air-breathing radio frequency ion thruster

Huang 黄,

Li 李,

Gao 高

et al. 2024

Chinese Phys. B

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Due to a series of challenges such as low-orbit maintenance of satellites, the air-breathing electric propulsion has got widespread attention. Commonly, the radio frequency ion thruster is favored by low-orbit missions due to its high specific impulse and efficiency. In this paper, the power transfer efficiency of the radio frequency ion thruster with different gas composition is studied experimentally, which is obtained by measuring the radio frequency power and current of the antenna coil with and without discharge operation. The results show that increasing the turns of antenna coils can effectively improve the radio frequency power transfer efficiency, which is due to the improvement of Q factor. In pure N2 discharge, with the increase of radio frequency power, the radio frequency power transfer efficiency first rises rapidly and then exhibits a less steep increasing trend. The radio frequency power transfer efficiency increases with the increase of gas pressure at relatively high power, while declines rapidly at relatively low power. In N2/O2 discharge, increasing the N2 content at high power can improve the radio frequency power transfer efficiency, but the opposite was observed at low power. In order to give a better understanding of these trends, an analytic solution in limit cases is utilized, and a Langmuir probe was employed to measure the electron density. It is found that the evolution of radio frequency power transfer efficiency can be well explained by the variation of plasma resistance, which is related to the electron density and the effective electron collision frequency.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%