微阴极电弧推力器磁路设计

微阴极电弧推力器是一种利用真空条件下放电电弧烧蚀阴极材料产生较高电离度的高速等离子体，并在外加磁场作用下喷出以产生推力的微型电推力器。微阴极电弧推力器磁场设计是推力器设计中的重要工作之一，将影响推力器工作稳定性和工作性能。分别采用多匝通电螺线管计算公式、二维和三维数值仿真完成磁路设计，磁感应强度随线圈电流和线圈匝数增加而变大；当线圈电流15A、线圈匝数为600匝时，放电通道中心线磁感应强度最大值超过0.3T；采用特斯拉计测量磁感应强度，仿真结果与测量结果吻合较好。最后采用时间飞行法（TOF）测得等离子体速度随磁场增强而增加。

Magnetic circuit design for micro cathode arc thrusters

The micro cathode arc thruster is one of the micro electric thrusters, which uses the vacuum arc to erode the cathode material and produce highly ionized high speed plasma, then pull out under the applied magnetic field to generate the thrust. The magnetic circuit design is the important work in the thruster design, it will affect the stability and the performance of the thruster. The multi turn solenoid calculation formula, 2D and 3D simulations were conducted in the magnetic circuit design, and the magnetic field strength increases with the increasing of coil current and coil turns. When the coil current is 15A and the coil has 600 turns, the maximum magnetic field strength along the discharge channel center line is more than 0.3T. The simulation results are in good agreement with the measured results by the Tesla meter. Finally, the time of flight (TOF) method was used to measure the plasma velocity, it increases with the enhancement of magnetic field strength.