Nozzle fabrication for micropropulsion of a microsatellite

M.C. Louwerse, Henricus V. Jansen, M.N.W. Groenendijk, Michael Curt Elwenspoek

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    Abstract

    To enable formation flying of microsatellites, small sized propulsion systems are required. Our research focuses on the miniaturization of a feeding and thruster system by means of microsystem technology (MST). Three fabrication methods have been investigated to make a conical converging–diverging nozzle. These methods are deep reactive ion etching (DRIE), femtosecond laser machining (FLM) and a combination of powderblasting and heat treatment. It is shown that the latter two methods are very promising.
    Original languageUndefined
    Pages (from-to)1-9
    Number of pages9
    JournalJournal of micromechanics and microengineering
    Volume19
    Issue number4
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 17 Mar 2009

    Keywords

    • EWI-18845
    • IR-74753
    • METIS-275706

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