Regular Article

Design and optimization of micro-semiconductor bridge used for solid propellant microthrusters array

School of Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, P.R. China

^a e-mail: yyinghua@njust.edu.cn

Received: 2 January 2016
Revised: 16 April 2016
Accepted: 27 April 2016
Published online: 3 June 2016

Abstract

Igniter is the basic component of MEMS-based solid propellant microthrusters (SPM) array, which should response fast with low dissipated energy. To satisfy the requirements, micro-semiconductor bridge (MSCB) with dual V-angles contributing to the reduction of dissipated energy is introduced into the array. The electrical explosion characteristics of MSCB investigated under constant voltage, in the considerations of the limit of power supply in the micro/nanosatellite, are similar to those under capacitive discharge. The bridge was completely vaporized and burst into the hot plasma under high-level voltage. While under low-level voltage, the bridge was partly vaporized without detected plasma. The 3#SCB (90° V-angle) with the smallest power density resulting in the lowest applied voltage (12.0 V) and the 2#SCB with the smallest narrow width (W_min) leading to the lowest average power (11.3 W) were chosen to the further optimization. The ignition tests were implemented to examine the ignition reliability of the contractible igniters, which were optimized to satisfy the voltage limitation with sufficient ignition capacity. The results show that the effective SCB with lowest dissipated power is the 3#-3SCB, which function within 100 μ under 7.0 V, and the average power below 5.0 W.