Pulsed power supply design for vacuum arc thrusters application

A vacuum arc thruster is a compact solid propellant propulsion system, which is capable to produce thrust in uN range. It is particularly interesting for very small satellites with a limited space and mass budget. While vacuum arc thrusters are studied by many research groups worldwide no system has been practically tested for an extended period of time on a satellite in space so far. For a space ready vacuum arc thruster system among other requirements a suitable power supply is necessary. It should allow a stable and long-term operation of the thruster under conditions which prevail on a solar cell powered satellite. Since only a limited power budget of a few Watts is available in this case, the thruster has to be operated in a pulsed mode. In this work we present a pulsed forming network-based power supply, which was adapted to suit the needs of the vacuum arc thruster applications under space condition. It features a design suitable for operation over many millions of pulses as well as an adjustable pulse length which allows to operate the thruster in different modes. Moreover, this design is compared to other power supplies suggested for the vacuum arc thruster.