This paper describes the design, fabrication and characterization of a ceramic, heated cold-gas microthruster device made with silicon tools and high temperature co-fired ceramic processing. The device contains two opposing thrusters, each with an integrated calorimetric propellant flow sensor and a heater in the stagnation chamber of the nozzle. The exhaust from a thruster was photographed using schlieren imaging to study its behavior and search for leaks. The heater elements were tested under a cyclic thermal load and to the maximum power before failure. The nozzle heater was shown to improve the efficiency of the thruster by 6.9%, from a specific impulse of 66 to 71 s, as calculated from a decrease of the flow rate through the nozzle of 13%, from 44.9 to 39.2 sccm. The sensitivity of the integrated flow sensor was measured to 0.15 m sccm −1 in the region of 0-15 sccm and to 0.04 m sccm −1 above 20 sccm, with a zero-flow sensitivity of 0.27 m sccm −1 . The choice of yttria-stabilized zirconia as a material for the devices makes them robust and capable of surviving temperatures locally exceeding 1000 • C.

This paper describes the design, fabrication and characterization of a flow sensor for high-temperature, or otherwise aggressive, environments, like, e.g. the propulsion system of a small spacecraft. The sensor was fabricated using 8 mol% yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ8) high-temperature co-fired ceramic (HTCC) tape and screen printed platinum paste. A calorimetric flow sensor design was used, with five 80 µm wide conductors, separated by 160 µm, in a 0.4 mm wide, 0.1 mm deep and 12.5 mm long flow channel. The central conductor was used as a heater for the sensor, and the two adjacent conductors were used to resistively measure the heat transferred from the heater by forced convection. The two outermost conductors were used to study the influence of an auxiliary heat source on the sensor. The resistances of the sensor conductors were measured using four-point connections, as the gas flow rate was slowly increased from 0 to 40 sccm, with different power supplied through the central heater, as well as with an upstream or downstream heater powered. In this study, the thermal and electrical integrability of microcomponents on the YSZ8 substrate was of particular interest and, hence, the influence of thermal and ionic conduction in the substrate was studied in detail. The effect of the ion conductivity of YSZ8 was studied by measuring the resistance of a platinum conductor and the resistance between two adjacent conductors on YSZ8, in a furnace at temperatures from 20 to 930 °C and by measuring the resistance with increasing current through a conductor. With this design, the influence of ion conductivity through the substrate became apparent above 700 °C. The sensitivity of the sensor was up to 1 mΩ sccm−1 in a range of 0–10 sccm. The results show that the signal from the sensor is influenced by the integrated auxiliary heating conductors and that these auxiliary heaters provide a way to balance disturbing heat sources, e.g. thrusters or other electronics, in conjunction with the flow sensor.

Abstract. Schlieren imaging is a method used to visualize differences in refractive index within a medium. It is a powerful and straightforward tool for sensitive and high-resolution visualization of, e.g., gas flows.Here, heated cold gas microthrusters were studied with this technique. The thrusters are manufactured using microelectromechanical systems technology, and measure 22×22×0.85 mm. The nozzles are approximately 20 µm wide at the throat, and 350 µm wide at the exit. Through these studies, verification of the functionality of the thrusters, and direct visualization and of the thruster exhausts was possible. At atmospheric pressure, slipping of the exhaust was observed, due to severe overexpansion of the nozzle. In vacuum (3 kPa), the exhaust was imaged while feed pressure was varied from 100 to 450 kPa. The nozzle was overexpanded, and the flow was seen to be supersonic. The shock cell period was linearly dependent on feed pressure, ranging from 320 to 610 µm. With activated heaters, the shock cell separation increased. The effect of the heaters was more prominent at low feed pressure, and an increase in specific impulse of 20% was calculated. It was also shown that schlieren imaging can be used to detect leaks, making it a valuable, safe, and noninvasive aid in quality control of the thrusters.

This paper presents the use of the temperature-dependent ion conductivity of 8 mol % yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ8) in a miniature high-temperature calorimetric flow sensor. The sensor consists of 4 layers of high-temperature co-fired ceramic (HTCC) YSZ8 tape with a 400 μm wide, 100 μm deep, and 12 500 μm long internal flow channel. Across the center of the channel, four platinum conductors, each 80 μm wide with a spacing of 160 μm, were printed. The two center conductors were used as heaters, and the outer, up- and downstream conductors were used to probe the resistance through the zirconia substrate around the heaters. The thermal profile surrounding the two heaters could be made symmetrical by powering them independently, and hence, the temperature sensing elements could be balanced at zero flow. With nitrogen flowing through the channel, forced convection shifted the thermal profile downstream, and the resistance of the temperature sensing elements diverged. The sensor was characterized at nitrogen flows from 0 to 40 sccm, and resistances at zero-flow from 10 to 50 MΩ. A peak sensitivity of 3.1 MΩ/sccm was obtained. Moreover, the sensor response was found to be linear over the whole flow range, with R2 of around 0.999, and easy to tune with the individual temperature control of the heaters. The ability of the sensor to operate in high temperatures makes it promising for use in different harsh environments, e.g., for close integration with microthrusters.

Schlieren imaging is a method for visualizing differences in refractive index as caused by pressure or temperature non-uniformities within a medium, or as caused by the mixing of two fluids. It is an inexpensive yet powerful and straightforward tool for sensitive and high-resolution visualization of otherwise invisible phenomena. In this article, application of the method to liquid membranes, sonar pulses and microscopic gas flows is used to illustrate its usefulness and versatility in physics education and research.

Close to rotationally symmetric in-plane silicon micronozzles with throat and exit diameters of 45 and 260 µm, respectively, have been fabricated using semi-isotropic SF6 etching through an array mask utilizing microloading and reactive ion etching lag. Comparison with nozzles fabricated using deep reactive ion etching (DRIE) and having a rectangular cross-section but a similar hydraulic diameter in the throat, showed that the Reynolds numbers were almost equal even though the DRIE-etched nozzle had an almost five times larger cross-sectional area, hence implying less viscous losses and higher efficiency with the nearly symmetrical nozzles. The nozzle shapes have been studied using x-ray computed tomography. Comparison of the nozzles' exhaust jets using schlieren imaging, showed that the rectangular nozzles' jets deviate from the nozzle axis direction. It is believed that it is caused by the inclined side walls resulting from the DRIE etching. The results from intentionally misaligning the wafers, each containing half a nozzle, 50 µm parallel with or perpendicular to the nozzle axis, showed that the exhaust deviated and widened, respectively. The findings show that the nozzle symmetry affects both the shape and the pointing direction of the exhaust and that schlieren imaging is a powerful tool for determining nozzle thrust vector deviations.

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