公开(公告)号：US12049878B2

公开(公告)日：2024-07-30

申请号：US17896651

申请日：2022-08-26

Applicant: The Trustees of Princeton University

Inventor： Jacob Simmonds ,  Yevgeny Raitses

IPC: F03H1/00

CPC classification number: F03H1/0068

Abstract: Disclosed is a miniaturized plasma propulsion device with minimized surface area of the thruster walls exposed to the plasma and, as a result, reduced plasma-surface interactions including a set of segmented electrodes to facilitate the following improvements compared to relevant existing technologies: 1) control of the plasma flow including focusing of the plasma plume 2) increase of the thrust 2) reduction of inefficiencies associated with the electron cross field current, and 3) mitigation of low frequency oscillations. The electrodes affect all these actions when a DC or modulated voltage is applied to one or all of them with the same or different amplitudes, with the same or different frequencies or phases which are all optimized to realize the best performance through changes in the acceleration and/or ionization regions. In addition, the applied voltage to the main electrodes may also be modulated.

公开(公告)号：US20230213024A1

公开(公告)日：2023-07-06

申请号：US17896651

申请日：2022-08-26

Applicant: The Trustees of Princeton University

Inventor： Jacob Simmonds ,  Yevgeny Raitses

IPC: F03H1/00

CPC classification number: F03H1/0068

Abstract: Disclosed is a miniaturized plasma propulsion device with minimized surface area of the thruster walls exposed to the plasma and, as a result, reduced plasma-surface interactions including a set of segmented electrodes to facilitate the following improvements compared to relevant existing technologies: 1) control of the plasma flow including focusing of the plasma plume 2) increase of the thrust 2) reduction of inefficiencies associated with the electron cross field current, and 3) mitigation of low frequency oscillations. The electrodes affect all these actions when a DC or modulated voltage is applied to one or all of them with the same or different amplitudes, with the same or different frequencies or phases which are all optimized to realize the best performance through changes in the acceleration and/or ionization regions. In addition, the applied voltage to the main electrodes may also be modulated.