Improving spacecraft payload system performance through low-pressure discharge process
Improving spacecraft payload system performance through low-pressure discharge process lead image
High working power and the integration of microwave components can improve the performance of spacecraft’s payload systems, which carry cargo or people into space. Secondary electron multiplication discharge, however, has always been an issue that limits the performance of spacecraft microwave loads under high-power operating conditions.
Feng et al. investigate the low-pressure discharge process in stages, determine the stage change criterion, and clarify the relevant transformation relations between secondary and ionized electrons in the low-pressure discharge and multipactor states.
“What surprised us most was the constrained relationship between the gas pressure and the electron energy limitation on the discharge area and morphology,” said author Yun Li.
Under the high microwave field, charged particles interact with the component surface or each other to form the electron multiplication effects. Those microwave resonance multiplication effects, including multipactor and corona discharge, restrict components’ performances and even reduce a payload system’s service life.
The researchers developed a 3D model for simulating low-pressure discharges in microwave circuits. They found that under low-pressure discharge conditions, secondary electrons behave as an accompanying product of ionized electrons, and their contribution to the discharge continues to decrease. Furthermore, under high power and at low pressure, the high power triggers high-energy secondary electron multiplication – making it the dominant factor in the discharge – and the low-pressure discharge shifts to the multipactor.
“Our research on the interaction of charged particles within microwave fields could also be applied to electron cloud simulation in particle accelerators, plasma propulsion for spacecraft, and electron multiplier tube simulation,” said Li.
Source: “Characteristics of electron evolution during initial low-pressure discharge stage upon microwave circuits,” by Guobao Feng, Yun Li, Xiaojun Li, Heng Zhang, and Lu Liu, AIP Advances (2022). The article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0130735 .
