Low Energy Surface Flashover for Initiation of Electric Propulsion Devices

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a low energy surface flashover method that reliably triggers discharges in electric propulsion systems with minimal damage, enabling over a million operations.

Contribution

It introduces a novel LESF approach that uses limited-duration high-current flashovers to initiate electric propulsion discharges without damaging the assembly.

Findings

LESF can trigger electric propulsion discharges effectively.

The LESF assembly withstands over 1.5 million flashovers.

Seed plasma from LESF is sufficient for discharge initiation.

Abstract

An approach to utilize Low Energy Surface Flashover (LESF) for triggering the discharge in electric propulsion systems has been demonstrated. LESF uses conventional surface flashover mechanism with limited duration of high-current stage of the flashover below <100-200 ns. This eliminates the damage to the LESF assembly and allows robust operation of the same assembly for >1.5*10^6 consecutive flashovers. The amount of the seed plasma created in the individual LESF event was demonstrated to be sufficient to trigger a moderate current arc which models a discharge in an electric propulsion system.