There are many factors that determine the grid design in ion thrusters. The grids must extract the ions from the discharge plasma and focus them through the downstream accelerator grid …

Nov 17, 2008 · For a three-grid system, many of the charge-exchange ions created downstream of the grid plane will impact the decel grid at relatively low energies ( ~25 V), instead of …

The XIPS ion thruster uses a third molybdenum decelerator grid (“decel grid”), in addition to screen and accel molybdenum grids. To predict the long-term life and performance of the …

Aug 1, 2018 · For three-grid accelerator systems, a final grid called “decel grid” is placed downstream of accel grid. This grid shields the accel grid from ion bombardment by charge …

on accel and decel grid erosion 5. We modeled the single aperture of the extraction grid system and the adjacent plasma in 2D cylindrical axisymmetry . The code is based on a Particle In …

Sep 4, 2008 · Fig. 4 compares the grid masses for the screen, accel, and decel grids. As expected from Fig. 3 , the accel grid mass decreases rapidly by erosion, while the screen grid …

A grid lifetime model is presented for the lifetime estimation of a 3-grid ion engine system. The failure mechanism considered in the model is electron backstreaming due to charge exchange …

May 7, 2019 · Results show that the decelerator grid has no effect on the focusing state and the distribution of beam ions. It also has little effect on the CEX ions from the upstream and …

The 4-grid system allows the ion extraction and ion acceleration processes to be decoupled, essentially creating a dual-stage system instead of the usual three grid thrusters where the two …

Jun 22, 2018 · Configurations, geometries, materials and fabrication methods are analyzed to understand when typical ion thrusters use two or three grids, what are the thicknesses and …