公开(公告)号：EP1123642B1

公开(公告)日：2006-09-13

申请号：EP99938169.2

申请日：1999-06-11

申请人： Thales Electron Devices GmbH

发明人： KORNFELD, Günter ,  WEGENER, Jürgen ,  SEIDEL, Harald

IPC分类号： H05H1/54

CPC分类号： H05H1/54 ,  B64G1/405 ,  F03H1/0068

摘要： The invention relates to a plasma accelerator arrangement, especially for use as an ion thruster in a spacecraft. According to the invention, the arrangement is structured in such a way that an accelerated electron beam is introduced into an ionisation chamber with propellant gas and guided through the ionisation chamber as a concentrated beam, towards an electric deceleration field which also acts as an acceleration field for the propellant ions produced by ionisation. The arrangement produces a focussed beam of an essentially neutral plasma with a high degree of efficiency. Examples of configurations for electric and magnetic fields for guiding and focussing the beams are also given.