Direct Thrust Measurement of an Electron Cyclotron Resonance Plasma Thruster

TE 01 Excitation of an Electron Cyclotron Resonance Plasma Source

The uniformity of plasma generation in electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) reactors for materials processing, and the subsequent uniformity of fluxes to the substrate, are generally a function of the mode of the microwave radiation injected into the chamber. In this paper, a finite difference time domain (FDTD) simulation is used to demonstrate the consequences of exciting an ECR reactor using a...

Impact of plasma noise on a direct thrust measurement system.

In order to evaluate the accuracy and sensitivity of a pendulum-type thrust measurement system, a linear variable differential transformer (LVDT) and a laser optical displacement sensor have been used simultaneously to determine the displacement resulting from an applied thrust. The LVDT sensor uses an analog interface, whereas the laser sensor uses a digital interface to communicate the displa...

Plasma expansion from a dielectric electron cyclotron resonance source

The boundary conditions in an electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) source have been modified to mimic the operating conditions where current-free double-layers (DLs) have been recently measured in rf helicon plasmas. The plasma is heated or generated by the ECR at 875 G inside a dielectric source tube, and expands into a grounded diffusion chamber (terminated by a glass plate) by a rapidly decrea...

Direct thrust measurements and modelling of a radio-frequency expanding plasma thruster

It is shown analytically that the thrust from a simple plasma thruster (in the absence of a magnetic field) is given by the maximum upstream electron pressure, even if the plasma diverges downstream. Direct thrust measurements of a thruster are then performed using a pendulum thrust balance and a laser displacement sensor. A maximum thrust of about 2 mN is obtained at 700 W for a thruster lengt...

Electron Cyclotron Resonance Ion Source