Loading…
Design, fabrication, and testing of MEMS solid propellant thruster array chip on glass wafer
This paper presents the internal ballistic design, fabrication procedure, and performance evaluation of a micro-electro mechanical systems (MEMS) solid propellant thruster array chip. The internal ballistic design was carried out to predict the performance of the thruster. Two different ignition mod...
Saved in:
Published in: | Sensors and actuators. A. Physical. 2010, Vol.157 (1), p.126-134 |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , |
Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
Subjects: | |
Citations: | Items that this one cites Items that cite this one |
Online Access: | Get full text |
Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
Summary: | This paper presents the internal ballistic design, fabrication procedure, and performance evaluation of a micro-electro mechanical systems (MEMS) solid propellant thruster array chip. The internal ballistic design was carried out to predict the performance of the thruster. Two different ignition models were used. The numerical results gave a maximum thrust of 3840
mN, and a total impulse of 0.42
mNs at the local ignition model. A photosensitive glass wafer only was used as the bare material for the thruster. The stability of the micro-igniter was improved by using a glass membrane with a thickness of tens of microns. The average thickness of the membrane was 35
μm. The proposed micro-igniter had a level of power consumption appropriate to ignite the solid propellant. The thermal, electrical, and mechanical characteristics of the fabricated micro-igniter were measured. The solid propellant was loaded into the propellant chamber without resort to a special technique due to the high structural stability of the glass membrane. An MEMS solid propellant thruster (MSPT) array was fabricated through anisotropic etching of photosensitive glass. An ignition control system was developed to control the ignition sequence. Ignition and combustion tests of the fully assembly MEMS thruster were performed successfully. The minimum ignition delay was 27.5
ms with an ignition energy of 19.3
mJ. The average of the measured maximum thrust and total impulse were 3619
mN and 0.381
mNs, respectively. |
---|---|
ISSN: | 0924-4247 1873-3069 |
DOI: | 10.1016/j.sna.2009.11.010 |