Measurement of output current for ferroelectric micro-plasma thruster

Abstract

Electrical microthruster have been widely applied in micro and nano-satellites, dute to its light weight and low cost. A microthruster based on ferroelectrical plasma is developed to realized microscale Newton thrust applications. Measurement of thrust generated from the ferroelectric miro-plasma thruster(FMPT) is crtical for the design of FMPT. A charge collector based on capacitor charging principle is proposed to measure the ion current from the nozzle of the ferroelectric micro-plasma thruster(FMPT).