Modeling of discharge-triggered electric field redistribution on the interior components of a satellite

Abstract

This work examines an electrostatic charging/discharging cycle of a populated circuit board inside an equipment housing of a satellite at GEO. Component potentials and electric field strengths are examined before and after a structure ground discharge event. Field reversal after the discharge suggests that favourable conditions exist for charge dissipation from the internal dielectrics at this point in time. Electric field strength dependent, this can be either spontaneous or drift related. This work was realized using a tool of two components. The charging cycle is calculated using a modified ITS-ACCEPT code. The resulting charge distribution is used as input to a 3D Poisson equation solver.