A newly designed ignition method for miniature radio frequency ion thruster

Wenjia Jiang; Liqiu Wei; Wenjie Fu; Bin Yu; Yan Song; Kai Cui; Yixuan Liu; Daren Yu

doi:10.1063/5.0071914

A newly designed ignition method for miniature radio frequency ion thruster

Rev Sci Instrum. 2022 Mar 1;93(3):033506. doi: 10.1063/5.0071914.

Authors

Wenjia Jiang¹, Liqiu Wei¹, Wenjie Fu², Bin Yu³, Yan Song¹, Kai Cui¹, Yixuan Liu¹, Daren Yu¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Energy Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, Heilongjiang 150001, China.
² School of Electronic Science and Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.
³ Beijing Hualongtong Science and Technology Co., Beijing, China.

PMID: 35364972
DOI: 10.1063/5.0071914

Abstract

The ignition methods used by micro-radio frequency (RF) ion thrusters have a disadvantage, that is, the starting voltage and flow rate are obviously higher than the rated value, which will easily damage the grid after long-term use. To decrease the starting voltage and flow and reduce the damage to the grid, a new ignition system is proposed in this paper. This system uses an intake pipe as the ground electrode, has an inductance coil and a pre-ionization chamber, and enables the miniature RF ion thruster (Harbin Institute of Technology's RF Ion Thruster 4, HRIT-4) to ignite at the rated voltage and flow by means of strong electric field breakdown and electromagnetic coupling. The experimental results show that when the flow rate is 1.0 SCCM, the ignition voltage is lower than 1900 V, and when the flow rate is 1.5 SCCM, the ignition voltage is lower than 1400 V.