The effects of varying aperture size and gas flow rate on the output electron current, distribution of ion energies and resulting thrust of a piezoelectric plasma propulsion system are assessed. An rf driven lithium niobate crystal was used to generate the plasma in a small vacuum chamber pressurized with argon gas. Flow rates of the argon gas and aperture diameters were independently varied to determine an optimal operating design. Electron and ion energies were measured by retarding potential analysis from 500V to 3kV in 500V increments to determine the energy distribution of the ejected plasma. A torsional balance with a laser interferometer setup was also developed to measure resulting thrust from each configuration. This presentation will detail the experimental configuration used to generate the plasma, the diagnostic design and the resulting electron currents, ion energies and thrust corresponding to the varied conditions.
A piezoelectric transformer plasma source microthruster (PTPS-MT) is being developed as an ion thruster for space propulsion applications. The PTPS-MT consists of a rf driven lithium niobate piezoelectric disc operating as a high voltage step-up transformer to ionize and accelerate plasma in a single self-contained package. A 400-1000 V input voltage was applied at the resonant frequency of a 10 mm x 2 mm piezoelectric disc to create a high voltage discharge capable of ionizing a background propellant. Acceleration of the resulting plasma was done through alternating RF fields creating a self-neutralizing system capable of producing thrust on the order of tens of micronewtons. Experiments were performed to determine operating parameters that improve propellant efficiency, operational life expectancy and thruster output. Results for each of these experiments are presented.
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