Benefits of planar compact antenna ICP are compelling:
- Investigate operation envelope of a 10 cm ICP discharge with magnetic enhancement as a function of pressure and power
- Plasma density and temperature
- Extractable ion current
- Estimated discharge efficiency
- End goal to determine if performance is in “ball park” of comparable DC sources and the RIT 10
Magnetic enhancement gave rise to significant increase in density –
Currents up to 1 A attained at projected losses of ~250 W/A on argon –
Considerable performance boost expected with xenon –
Stand alone ion thruster based on magnetically enhanced ICP results being developed –
