Design, Fabrication, and Performance Evaluation of MEMS Solid Propellant Thruster Array

Abstract

This paper presents the internal ballistic design, fabrication procedure, and performance evaluation of a Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) solid propellant thruster array chip. The internal ballistic design was carried out to predict the performance of the thruster. Only the photosensitive glass wafer was used as the bare material for the thruster. We developed the micro igniter with improved structural stability by using a glass membrane with a thickness of tens of microns. The solid propellant was loaded into the propellant chamber without resort to a special technique due to the high structural stability of the glass membrane. An MEMS Solid Propellant Thruster (MSPT) array was fabricated through anisotropic etching of photosensitive glass. Ignition and combustion tests of the fully assembly MEMS thruster were performed successfully. Nomenclature P = pressure t = time R = gas constant T =