CN116006429A - Miniature DC ion thruster based on glow discharge cathode - Google Patents
Miniature DC ion thruster based on glow discharge cathode Download PDFInfo
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- CN116006429A CN116006429A CN202310242306.7A CN202310242306A CN116006429A CN 116006429 A CN116006429 A CN 116006429A CN 202310242306 A CN202310242306 A CN 202310242306A CN 116006429 A CN116006429 A CN 116006429A
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Abstract
The invention discloses a miniature direct current ion thruster based on a glow discharge cathode, belongs to the field of miniature direct current ion thrusters, and aims to solve the problems that a traditional hollow cathode in the existing direct current ion thruster is complex in structure, difficult to miniaturize, high in working temperature, short in service life of a tungsten filament cathode and the like. The invention comprises a glow cathode component, an anode component, a grid component, a permanent magnet component, a mounting base and a shell; the installation base is arranged at the bottom opening end of the shell, the permanent magnet assembly, the anode assembly and the glow cathode assembly are sleeved in the shell from outside to inside in sequence, and the grid assembly is arranged at the downstream of the anode assembly; the glow cathode component is arranged on the mounting base and extends out of the central hole of the mounting base, the glow cathode component is used for carrying out preliminary ionization on working medium gas, electrons are absorbed by the anode component, the neutral gas which is not ionized by the glow cathode component is further ionized in the discharge chamber, and ions in the discharge chamber are accelerated to be ejected by the ion optical system.
Description
Technical Field
The invention relates to a miniature direct current ion thruster based on a glow discharge cathode, belonging to the field of miniature direct current ion thrusters.
Background
The ion thruster is one of the most mature and most widely applied electric propulsion devices in the prior art, and has the advantages of high specific impulse, high efficiency, wide adjustment of the thrust ratio impulse and the like. The plasma generation method of the ion thruster can be classified into a direct current ion thruster, a radio frequency ion thruster and a microwave ion thruster according to different plasma generation modes of the ion thruster. Direct current ion thrusters are widely studied because of their simple and reliable structure and power supply modules; and the radio frequency and microwave ion thrusters require additional radio frequency and microwave sources, which are inefficient and add to the volume and weight of the system.
The DC ion thruster mainly comprises a main cathode, an anode, a magnetic field and an ion optical system. The primary electrons emitted by the main cathode finally reach the anode under the action of an electromagnetic field, and in the movement process, the electrons collide with the propellant working medium to ionize so as to generate plasma, and the plasma is accelerated to be ejected out through the ion optical system so as to form a reaction force. At present, the main cathode of the direct current ion thruster is mainly a barium-tungsten and lanthanum hexaboride hollow cathode, the structure is complex, and the direct current ion thruster is difficult to adapt to the size of the miniature ion thruster; secondly, by means of thermionic emission, the samarium cobalt permanent magnet of the miniature direct current ion thruster has strong current emission capability but high working temperature, usually exceeding 1000 ℃, and the maximum temperature resistance of the samarium cobalt permanent magnet of the miniature direct current ion thruster is generally 350 ℃, so that the permanent magnet is demagnetized and a design magnetic field is destroyed when the thruster works for a long time. Tungsten wire cathodes have also been used as the primary cathode for miniature dc ion thrusters, but have also suffered from high operating temperatures and short service lives.
Therefore, in order to overcome the above disadvantages, a cathode with a small size, a simple structure, a low working temperature and a certain service life is needed to be used as the main cathode of the miniature direct current ion thruster.
Disclosure of Invention
Aiming at the problems that the traditional hollow cathode in the existing DC ion thruster is complex in structure, difficult to miniaturize, high in working temperature, short in service life of a tungsten filament cathode and the like, the invention provides a miniature DC ion thruster based on a glow discharge cathode.
The invention discloses a miniature direct current ion thruster based on a glow discharge cathode, which comprises a glow cathode assembly, an anode assembly, a grid assembly, a permanent magnet assembly, a mounting base 13 and a shell 16; the mounting base 13 is arranged at the bottom opening end of the shell 16, the permanent magnet assembly, the anode assembly and the glow cathode assembly are sleeved in the shell 16 from outside to inside in sequence, and the grid assembly is arranged at the downstream of the anode assembly;
the glow cathode component is arranged on the mounting base 13 and extends out of the central hole of the mounting base, the glow cathode component carries out preliminary ionization on working medium gas, electrons are absorbed by the anode component, the neutral gas which is not ionized by the glow cathode component is further ionized in the discharge chamber, and ions in the discharge chamber are accelerated to be ejected by the ion optical system;
the glow cathode assembly comprises an air supply pipe 1, an insulating cap 2, a negative electrode insulator 3, a negative electrode 4, a contact electrode insulator 5 and a contact electrode 6; the air supply pipe 1 is positioned between the insulating cap 2 and the negative electrode insulator 3 and is tightly pressed by matching the internal thread of the insulating cap 2 and the external thread of the negative electrode insulator 3;
an air inlet 4-1 is arranged at the bottom of the negative electrode 4 of the glow cathode and is used for communicating the air supply pipe 1 with the cathode chamber; the top end of the contact electrode 6 is provided with an orifice 6-1 for throttling gas to maintain the higher air pressure of the cathode chamber;
the insulation between the cathode 4 and the air supply pipe 1 is ensured by a cathode insulator 3; insulation between the contact electrode 6 and the negative electrode 4 is ensured by a contact electrode insulator 5.
Preferably, the contact electrode 6 is in a cylindrical structure, and the contact electrode 6 is provided with an orifice 6-1 so as to form higher air pressure in the glow cathode discharge chamber;
the orifice 6-1 is arranged in the following manner:
a single hole is arranged at the top of the cylinder of the contact electrode 6 in the first mode;
the cylinder top of the contact electrode 6 is provided with a plurality of small holes, and the aperture of the small holes is smaller than that of the single hole in the mode I;
a third mode is that a small hole is arranged at the top of the cylinder of the contact electrode 6 and is used for leading out electrons and a small part of neutral gas; the cylinder wall of the contact electrode 6 is provided with a circle of small holes for leading out most neutral gas so as to lead the neutral gas to collide with electrons near the anode outside the cylinder wall.
Preferably, a baffle 10 is further included, the baffle 10 is disposed downstream of the cathode orifice 6-1, and the baffle 10 is fixed on the touch electrode 6 for homogenizing the non-ionized neutral gas of the glow cathode.
Preferably, the anode assembly comprises an anode insulator 7 and an anode 8;
the anode 8 is cylindrical, the anode 8 is sleeved outside the cylinder of the contact electrode 6, and a thruster discharge chamber is formed inside the anode 8;
the bottom varus edge of the anode 8 is arranged on the bottom valgus edge of the cylinder of the contact electrode 6, the anode 8 and the bottom valgus edge are insulated by the anode insulator 7, the anode insulator 7 is cylindrical, the anode 8 and the anode insulator 7 are coaxial, and the anode 8, the contact electrode 6 and the cathode 4 are jointly fixed on the mounting base 13.
Preferably, the permanent magnet assembly comprises a permanent magnet support frame 14 and a permanent magnet 15, the permanent magnet 15 is annular, the permanent magnet 15 is sleeved outside the anode 8, the bottom end surface of the permanent magnet 15 is arranged on the permanent magnet support frame 14, the permanent magnet support frame 14 is fixed on the mounting base 13, the permanent magnet support frame 14 and the shell 16 are coaxial, and a gap exists between the permanent magnet support frame 14 and the shell 16.
Preferably, the gate assembly comprises a screen gate 11, an accelerator gate 12 and a gate insulator 9; the cylindrical top end of the anode insulator 7 has a flange structure to which the screen 11 and the acceleration grid 12 are fixed and electrically insulated and positioned by the gate insulator 9.
Preferably, the glow-cathode assembly is fixed on the mounting base 13 by two negative bolts and one contact-holding bolt;
three threaded holes are formed in the bottom inverted edge of the anode 8, and the anode is fixed on the mounting base 13 through three anode bolts penetrating through the through holes of the glow cathode assembly;
the through holes of the glow cathode assembly are three through holes formed in the outwards turned edge of the bottom of the cylinder of the contact electrode 6, the inner diameter of each through hole is larger than the outer diameter of the anode bolt, and a gap exists between each through hole and the anode bolt;
the bottom of the permanent magnet support frame 14 is fixed on the mounting base 13 through a plurality of permanent magnet bolts;
the bottom of the shell 16 is fixed on the mounting base 13 through a plurality of shell bolts;
the anode bolt, the cathode bolt and the contact electrode bolt are conductors and are respectively electrically conducted with the corresponding anode, the corresponding cathode and the corresponding contact electrode.
Preferably, the gas supply pipe 1, the cathode 4, the touch electrode 6, the anode 8 and the housing 16 are made of 304 stainless steel materials;
the negative electrode insulator 3, the contact electrode insulator 5, the anode insulator 7 and the grid electrode insulator 9 are made of alumina ceramic materials;
the mounting base 13 and the permanent magnet supporting frame 14 are made of aluminum alloy materials;
the screen 11 and the acceleration grid 12 are made of stainless steel or molybdenum materials;
the permanent magnet 15 is a Gao Wenshan cobalt-resistant material.
Preferably, the device further comprises a cathode power supply, a discharge power supply, a screen grid power supply and an acceleration grid power supply;
the negative electrode 4 of the glow cathode is connected with the negative electrode of the cathode power supply, the contact electrode 6 is connected with the positive electrode of the cathode power supply and the negative electrode of the discharge power supply, and the positive electrode is connected with the positive electrode of the discharge power supply;
the screen grating 11 is connected with the positive electrode of the screen grating power supply, the accelerating grating 12 is connected with the negative electrode of the accelerating grating power supply, and the negative electrode of the screen grating power supply and the positive electrode of the accelerating grating power supply are grounded, so that the screen grating is positive potential to the ground, and the accelerating grating is negative potential to the ground.
The working principle of the miniature direct current ion thruster based on the glow discharge cathode provided by the invention is that when inert gas working media such as xenon, krypton and the like are introduced into an air supply pipe, glow discharge plasma is generated by breakdown of a cathode electrode and a contact electrode under high voltage sequentially through a cathode insulator, a cathode air inlet hole and a cathode discharge chamber. Electrons in the plasma pass through the throttle hole of the contact electrode under the action of the electric field of the anode, enter the discharge chamber of the thruster, finally reach the anode under the action of the electromagnetic field, collide with non-ionized neutral atoms to generate secondary ionization in the movement process, and the ions in the plasma are accelerated to be ejected under the action of the electric field of the grid electrode to generate thrust.
The beneficial effects of the invention are as follows: the miniature direct current ion thruster based on the glow discharge cathode provided by the invention is used for generating primary electrons by taking the glow discharge cathode as a main cathode. The glow discharge cathode has a simple structure and is suitable for a miniature ion thruster; the main cathode is started by means of high voltage cold, a heater is not needed, and the ignition time is short; the main cathode works in a glow discharge mode, the temperature is low, and the thruster is allowed to work for a long time while the permanent magnet is kept from demagnetizing; electrons and non-ionized neutral atoms generated by the glow cathode are utilized to ionize in the thruster discharge chamber for the second time, so that the air supply pipeline is simplified and the utilization rate of working media is improved.
Drawings
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a miniature DC ion thruster based on a glow discharge cathode according to the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a left side view of FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a schematic view of a glow-cathode mounting structure;
FIG. 4 is a schematic view of a structure of a glow cathode touch electrode;
FIG. 5 is a schematic view of another construction of a touch electrode of a glow cathode;
fig. 6 is a schematic circuit diagram of a miniature dc ion thruster based on a glow discharge cathode.
1. The device comprises an air supply pipe, 2, an insulating cap, 3, a negative electrode insulator, 4, a negative electrode, 4-1, an air inlet, 5, a contact electrode insulator, 6, a contact electrode, 6-1, an orifice, 7, an anode insulator, 8, an anode, 9, a grid insulator, 10, a baffle, 11, a screen grid, 12, an accelerating grid, 13, a mounting base, 14, a permanent magnet support frame, 15, a permanent magnet, 16 and a shell;
17-1, a first shell bolt, 17-2, a second shell bolt, 17-3, a third shell bolt, 17-4 and a fourth shell bolt;
18-1, a first permanent magnet bolt, 18-2, a second permanent magnet bolt, 18-3, a third permanent magnet bolt, 18-4 and a fourth permanent magnet bolt;
19-1, a first anode bolt, 19-2, a second anode bolt, 19-3 and a third anode bolt;
20-1, a first negative electrode bolt, 20-2, a second negative electrode bolt, 20-3 and a touch electrode bolt.
Detailed Description
The following description of the embodiments of the present invention will be made clearly and completely with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which it is apparent that the embodiments described are only some embodiments of the present invention, but not all embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be made by those skilled in the art based on the embodiments of the invention without making any inventive effort, are intended to be within the scope of the invention.
It should be noted that, without conflict, the embodiments of the present invention and features of the embodiments may be combined with each other.
The invention is further described below with reference to the drawings and specific examples, which are not intended to be limiting.
The first embodiment is as follows: the following describes a glow-discharge cathode-based miniature dc ion thruster according to the present embodiment with reference to fig. 1 to 6, and includes a glow-cathode assembly, an anode assembly, a grid assembly, a permanent magnet 15 assembly, a mounting base 13, and a housing 16. The mounting base 13 is arranged at the bottom opening end of the shell 16, the permanent magnet assembly, the anode assembly and the glow cathode assembly are sleeved in the shell 16 from outside to inside in sequence, and the grid assembly is arranged at the downstream of the anode assembly;
the glow cathode component is arranged on the mounting base 13 and extends out of the central hole of the mounting base, the glow cathode component carries out preliminary ionization on working medium gas, electrons are absorbed by the anode component, the neutral gas which is not ionized by the glow cathode component is further ionized in the discharge chamber, and ions in the discharge chamber are accelerated to be ejected by the ion optical system;
the glow-cathode assembly comprises an air supply tube 1, an insulating cap 2, a negative electrode insulator 3, a negative electrode 4, a contact electrode insulator 5 and a contact electrode 6.
An air inlet 4-1 is arranged at the bottom of the negative electrode 4 of the glow cathode and is used for communicating an air supply channel and a cathode chamber; the top end of the touch electrode 6 is provided with an orifice 6-1 for gas throttling to maintain a higher gas pressure of the cathode chamber.
The insulation between the cathode 4 and the air supply pipe 1 is ensured by a cathode insulator 3; insulation between the contact electrode 6 and the negative electrode 4 is ensured by a contact electrode insulator 5.
The anode assembly comprises an anode insulator 7 and an anode 8.
The anode 8 and the anode insulator 7 are coaxial, and the anode insulator 7 is used for insulating the contact electrode 6 and the anode 8.
The bottom of the anode is provided with three threaded holes, and the three anode bolts 19-1, 19-2 and 19-3 pass through the through holes of the glow-cathode assembly and are fixed on the mounting base 13.
The bolts are conductors and are respectively electrically conducted with the electrodes, namely the anode bolts, the cathode bolts and the contact electrode bolts are conductors and are respectively electrically conducted with the corresponding anode, the corresponding cathode and the corresponding contact electrode.
The baffle 10 is arranged at the downstream of the cathode orifice 6-1, and the baffle 10 can be fixed on the contact electrode 6 by spot welding and is used for homogenizing the non-ionized neutral gas of the glow cathode, reducing the axial speed of the neutral gas and increasing the collision probability with electrons.
The contact electrode 6 is of a cylindrical structure, and the contact electrode 6 is provided with an orifice 6-1. The orifice 6-1 is arranged in the following manner:
the top of the contact electrode 6 is provided with a single hole for leading out electrons and neutral gas.
In order to further improve the utilization rate of neutral gas, the orifice of the contact electrode 6 may be provided with a plurality of small holes, in particular, in the second mode and the third mode.
And in the second mode, a plurality of small holes are formed in the top of the cylinder of the contact electrode 6. The throttle holes 6-1 at the top end of the contact electrode 6 can be set as a plurality of throttle holes 6-1, as shown in fig. 5, on one hand, the loss of central gas caused by high axial speed is reduced, and on the other hand, the glow discharge high plasma density area in the inner cavity of the cathode is close to the top end of the contact electrode 6, so that the electron is led out more easily. The pore sizes of the small pores are the same and are smaller than the 6-1 diameter of the orifice in the case of single pore.
The third mode is that the cylinder top of the contact electrode 6 is provided with a small hole, the cylinder wall of the contact electrode 6 is provided with a circle of small holes, as shown in fig. 4, the small holes at the top end are mainly used for leading out electrons and a small part of neutral gas, the small holes on the side wall are mainly used for leading out neutral gas, on one hand, the gas flow rate is reduced, the residence time in a discharge chamber is prolonged, on the other hand, the gas working medium led out from the small holes on the side wall of the contact electrode 6 collides with electrons near an anode, and the ionization efficiency of the discharge chamber is improved.
The permanent magnet 15 assembly comprises a permanent magnet support frame 14 and a permanent magnet 15.
A plurality of annular permanent magnets 15 are arranged on the outer side of the anode insulator 7 and are arranged on the permanent magnet supporting frame 14;
the permanent magnet support 14 is coaxial with the housing 16 with a gap therebetween.
The gate assembly comprises a screen gate 11, an accelerator gate 12 and a number of gate insulators 9. The screen 11 and the accelerator 12 are fixed on top of the anode insulator and are insulated and positioned by the gate insulator 9.
Each structure is connected and fixed on the mounting base 13 by a bolt mode, specifically:
the glow cathode assembly is fixed on the mounting base 13 by two negative electrode bolts and one touch electrode bolt; the bottom of the negative electrode 4 is provided with two threaded holes for connecting and fixing the first negative electrode bolt 20-1 and the second negative electrode bolt 20-2, and the bottom of the contact electrode 6 is provided with a threaded hole for connecting and fixing the contact electrode bolt 20-3, and the mounting structure of the glow cathode is shown in figure 3.
Three threaded holes are formed in the bottom inverted edge of the anode 8, and the anode is fixed on the mounting base 13 through three anode bolts penetrating through the through holes of the glow cathode assembly;
the through holes of the glow cathode assembly are three through holes formed in the outwards turned edge of the bottom of the cylinder of the contact electrode 6, the inner diameter of each through hole is larger than the outer diameter of the anode bolt, and a gap exists between each through hole and the anode bolt; the anode is fixed on the mounting base 13 through three anode bolts passing through the through holes of the glow cathode assembly, and a gap exists between the through holes and the anode bolts. The three anode bolts are a first anode bolt 19-1, a second anode bolt 19-2 and a third anode bolt 19-3.
The bottom of the permanent magnet support frame 14 is fixed on the mounting base 13 through a plurality of permanent magnet bolts; the four permanent magnet bolts are respectively a first permanent magnet bolt 18-1, a second permanent magnet bolt 18-2, a third permanent magnet bolt 18-3 and a fourth permanent magnet bolt 18-4.
The bottom of the housing 16 is fixed on the mounting base 13 through a plurality of housing bolts, and four housing bolts are provided in this embodiment, namely, a first housing bolt 17-1, a second housing bolt 17-2, a third housing bolt 17-3 and a fourth housing bolt 17-4.
The air supply pipe 1, the cathode 4, the contact electrode 6, the anode 8 and the shell 16 are made of 304 stainless steel materials;
the negative electrode insulator 3, the contact electrode insulator 5, the anode insulator and the grid insulator are made of alumina ceramic materials;
the mounting base 13 and the permanent magnet supporting frame 14 are made of aluminum alloy materials;
the screen 11 and the acceleration grid 12 are made of stainless steel or molybdenum materials;
the permanent magnet 15 is made of Gao Wenshan cobalt-resistant material, and the maximum allowable working temperature is 350 ℃.
Referring to fig. 6, the negative electrode 4 of the glow cathode is connected to the negative electrode of the cathode power supply, the contact electrode 6 is connected to the positive electrode of the cathode power supply and the negative electrode of the discharge power supply, and the positive electrode is connected to the positive electrode of the discharge power supply.
The screen grating 11 is connected with the positive electrode of the screen grating power supply, the accelerating grating 12 is connected with the negative electrode of the accelerating grating power supply, and the negative electrode of the screen grating power supply and the positive electrode of the accelerating grating power supply are grounded, so that the screen grating is positive potential to the ground, and the accelerating grating is negative potential to the ground.
Unlike when a hollow cathode is used as the main cathode of an ion thruster, the screen grid 11 needs to be connected with the contact electrode 6 of the glow cathode through a lead so as to keep the same potential.
When the ion thruster based on glow discharge is operated, inert gas working medium forms higher air pressure in a cathode cavity under the action of an orifice 6-1 through an air supply pipe 1 and a cathode air inlet 4-1 of a cathode insulator 3, and neutral gas is broken down to generate glow discharge plasma by virtue of high voltage applied to two ends of a cathode 4 and a touch electrode 6, so that the ignition process of a cathode is completed; after the glow cathode works stably, a discharge power supply is started, electrons in plasma in the glow cathode enter a discharge chamber through a throttling hole 6-1 under the action of an anode electric field, electron conduction paths are increased by the electrons under the action of magnetic field constraint, secondary collision ionization occurs between the electrons and neutral atoms which are not ionized by the glow cathode in the movement process, electrons with low energy generated by collision are absorbed by an anode 8 and form a complete loop, and the ignition process of the thruster is completed; after the thruster discharges steadily, the screen grid power supply and the acceleration grid power supply are turned on, ions in the discharge chamber are accelerated and sprayed out by the ion optical system to form reaction thrust, and the process of leading out the plume of the thruster is completed.
The miniature direct current ion thruster based on the glow discharge cathode provided by the invention generates primary electrons by means of the glow cathode, and the cathode consists of the cylindrical cathode 4 and the touch electrode 6, so that parts are fewer, the structure is simple, and miniaturization is easy to realize; the cathode is started by applying high voltage cold, a heater is not needed, and the instant starting response is fast; the cathode works in a glow discharge mode, the working temperature is low, the risk of demagnetization of the permanent magnet is greatly reduced, and particularly when the hollow cathode and the tungsten filament cathode are used as main cathodes, the thruster is allowed to work for a long time.
The micro-thruster of the invention can use inert gas working medium such as xenon, krypton and argon as propellant, and can also use unconventional propellant such as oxygen, nitrogen and the like as working medium.
The miniature direct current ion thruster based on the glow discharge cathode only adopts one path of air supply, and gas working medium firstly passes through the glow discharge cathode to generate glow discharge, is ionized for one time and generates primary electrons; the unionized neutral gas enters the discharge chamber through the orifice 6-1, and neutral atoms are radially diffused under the action of the downstream baffle 10, and collide with primary electrons to generate secondary ionization. On one hand, the air supply pipeline is simplified, and the complexity of the system is reduced; meanwhile, the secondary ionization of the working medium in the discharge chamber improves the utilization rate of the working medium.
The miniature direct current ion thruster based on the glow discharge cathode can adopt the glow discharge cathode as a neutralizer for plume neutralization, and can also adopt a tungsten filament cathode with equivalent emission current level as the neutralizer for neutralization.
Although the invention herein has been described with reference to particular embodiments, it is to be understood that these embodiments are merely illustrative of the principles and applications of the present invention. It is therefore to be understood that numerous modifications may be made to the illustrative embodiments and that other arrangements may be devised without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims. It should be understood that the different dependent claims and the features described herein may be combined in ways other than as described in the original claims. It is also to be understood that features described in connection with separate embodiments may be used in other described embodiments.
Claims (9)
1. The miniature direct current ion thruster based on the glow discharge cathode is characterized by comprising a glow cathode component, an anode component, a grid component, a permanent magnet component, a mounting base (13) and a shell (16); the mounting base (13) is arranged at the bottom opening end of the shell (16), the permanent magnet assembly, the anode assembly and the glow cathode assembly are sleeved in the shell (16) from outside to inside in sequence, and the grid assembly is arranged at the downstream of the anode assembly;
the glow cathode component is arranged on the mounting base (13) and extends out from the central hole of the mounting base, the glow cathode component carries out primary ionization on working medium gas, electrons are absorbed by the anode component, neutral gas which is not ionized by the glow cathode component is further ionized in the discharge chamber, and ions in the discharge chamber are accelerated to be ejected by the ion optical system;
the glow cathode assembly comprises an air supply pipe (1), an insulating cap (2), a negative electrode insulator (3), a negative electrode (4), a contact electrode insulator (5) and a contact electrode (6); the air supply pipe (1) is positioned between the insulating cap (2) and the negative electrode insulator (3) and is tightly pressed by matching the internal thread of the insulating cap (2) with the external thread of the negative electrode insulator (3);
an air inlet hole (4-1) is arranged at the bottom of the negative electrode (4) of the glow cathode and is used for communicating the air supply pipe (1) with the cathode chamber; the top end of the contact electrode (6) is provided with an orifice (6-1) for throttling gas to maintain higher air pressure of the cathode chamber;
the insulation between the negative electrode (4) and the air supply pipe (1) is ensured by a negative electrode insulator (3); insulation between the contact electrode (6) and the negative electrode (4) is ensured by a contact electrode insulator (5).
2. The miniature direct current ion thruster based on the glow-discharge cathode according to claim 1, wherein the contact electrode (6) is of a cylindrical structure, and the contact electrode (6) is provided with an orifice (6-1) so as to form higher air pressure in the glow-discharge cathode chamber;
the throttle hole (6-1) is arranged in the following way:
a single hole is arranged at the top of the cylinder of the first mode contact electrode (6);
the cylinder top of the contact electrode (6) is provided with a plurality of small holes, and the aperture of the small holes is smaller than that of the single hole in the second mode;
a third mode is that a small hole is arranged at the top of the cylinder of the contact electrode (6) and is used for leading out electrons and a small part of neutral gas; the cylinder wall of the contact electrode (6) is provided with a circle of small holes for leading out most neutral gas so as to lead the neutral gas to collide with electrons near the anode outside the cylinder wall.
3. The miniature dc ion thruster based on glow-discharge cathode according to claim 2, further comprising a baffle (10), said baffle (10) being arranged downstream of the cathode orifice (6-1), the baffle (10) being fixed on the strike electrode (6) for homogenizing the non-ionized neutral gas of the glow-discharge cathode.
4. A miniature dc ion thruster based on a glow-discharge cathode according to claim 3, characterized in that the anode assembly comprises an anode insulator (7) and an anode (8);
the anode (8) is cylindrical, the anode (8) is sleeved outside the cylinder of the contact electrode (6), and a thruster discharge chamber is formed inside the anode (8);
the bottom of the anode (8) is inwards turned and arranged on the outwards turned edge of the bottom of the cylinder of the contact electrode (6), the anode and the cathode are insulated through an anode insulator (7), the anode insulator (7) is cylindrical, the anode (8) and the anode insulator (7) are coaxial, and the anode (8), the contact electrode (6) and the cathode (4) are jointly fixed on the mounting base (13).
5. The miniature direct current ion thruster based on the glow discharge cathode according to claim 4, wherein the permanent magnet assembly comprises a permanent magnet support frame (14) and a permanent magnet (15), the permanent magnet (15) is annular, the permanent magnet (15) is sleeved outside the anode (8), the bottom end surface of the permanent magnet (15) is installed on the permanent magnet support frame (14), the permanent magnet support frame (14) is fixed on the installation base (13), the permanent magnet support frame (14) is coaxial with the shell (16), and a gap exists between the permanent magnet support frame and the shell.
6. The glow-discharge cathode-based miniature dc ion thruster of claim 5, wherein the gate assembly comprises a screen (11), an accelerator (12) and a gate insulator 9; the cylindrical top end of the anode insulator (7) is of a flange structure, and a screen grid (11) and an acceleration grid (12) are fixed on the flange and are electrically insulated and positioned through the grid insulator 9.
7. The miniature dc ion thruster based on glow-discharge cathode according to claim 5, wherein the glow-cathode assembly is fixed on the mounting base (13) by two negative bolts and one contact bolt;
three threaded holes are formed in the bottom inverted edge of the anode (8), and the anode is fixed on the mounting base (13) through three through holes of the glow cathode assembly by means of three anode bolts;
the through holes of the glow cathode assembly are three through holes formed in the outwards turned edge of the bottom of the cylinder of the contact electrode (6), the inner diameter of each through hole is larger than the outer diameter of the anode bolt, and a gap exists between each through hole and the anode bolt;
the bottom of the permanent magnet support frame (14) is fixed on the mounting base (13) through a plurality of permanent magnet bolts;
the bottom of the shell (16) is fixed on the mounting base (13) through a plurality of shell bolts;
the anode bolt, the cathode bolt and the contact electrode bolt are conductors and are respectively electrically conducted with the corresponding anode, the corresponding cathode and the corresponding contact electrode.
8. The glow-discharge cathode-based miniature dc ion thruster of claim 5, wherein the gas supply tube (1), the negative electrode (4), the contact electrode (6), the anode (8) and the housing (16) are 304 stainless steel material;
the negative electrode insulator (3), the contact electrode insulator (5), the anode insulator (7) and the grid electrode insulator 9 are made of alumina ceramic materials;
the mounting base (13) and the permanent magnet supporting frame (14) are made of aluminum alloy materials;
the screen grating (11) and the accelerating grating (12) are made of stainless steel or molybdenum materials;
the permanent magnet (15) is made of Gao Wenshan cobalt-resistant material.
9. The glow-discharge cathode-based miniature dc ion thruster of claim 5, further comprising a cathode power supply, a discharge power supply, a screen grid power supply, and an accelerator grid power supply;
the negative electrode (4) of the glow cathode is connected with the negative electrode of the cathode power supply, the contact electrode (6) is connected with the positive electrode of the cathode power supply and the negative electrode of the discharge power supply, and the positive electrode is connected with the positive electrode of the discharge power supply;
the screen grating (11) is connected with the positive electrode of the screen grating power supply, the accelerating grating (12) is connected with the negative electrode of the accelerating grating power supply, and the negative electrode of the screen grating power supply and the positive electrode of the accelerating grating power supply are grounded, so that the screen grating is positive to the ground and the accelerating grating is negative to the ground.
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| CN202310242306.7A CN116006429A (en) | 2023-03-14 | 2023-03-14 | Miniature DC ion thruster based on glow discharge cathode |
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| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US20230083683A1 (en) * | 2020-01-10 | 2023-03-16 | University Of Miami | Ion booster for thrust generation |
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Cited By (1)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US20230083683A1 (en) * | 2020-01-10 | 2023-03-16 | University Of Miami | Ion booster for thrust generation |
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