Evince Diamond Cold Cathode

Evince 钻石冷阴极

• 批准号: 106221
• 金额: $ 19.11万
• 依托单位: EVINCE TECHNOLOGY LIMITED
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Collaborative R&D
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2020 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=106221
• 关键词: Evince; Diamond; Cold; Cathode

Small-Satellites (small-sats) are driving a revolution in the space industry that will see thousands more satellites launched in the next 5 years than have been launched in the previous 50. The industry is characterised by agile fast turnaround satellite manufactucturing start-ups relying on modular hardware to minimise design and speed time to launch from \>5 years to <2 years. It is estimated that by 2026 the small-sat hardware industry will be worth \>£15.6bn in turn enabling a downstream industry worth 10x that, driven by a vision of a truly globally accessible internet and sustainability of finite resources.Nearly all small-sats are launched using shared rockets and require booster thrusters to position them into their final orbits. Ion thrusters have been shown to be 2x more efficient than chemical thrusters however they have a reliability problem. The propellant ion thrusters expel is positively charged and needs to be neutralised by firing a beam of electrons to compensate and balance the charge lost. Without the neutraliser the satellite would charge up and cease operating.The neutraliser is the weakest component on an ion thruster. Current options are based on hot filament or micro-hollow cathodes, both of which are fragile and energy/fuel intensive.We have a solution that fully overcomes these limitations by embedding the electron source completely within a synthetic-diamond substrate, thereby completely encapsulating it in one of the most thermally and chemically stable matrials known to humankind. It is able operate at ambient temperatures, switches-on instantly and offers 10x better performance over the incumbent technology. This project will focus on demonstrating a prototype neutraliser for small-sat applications.The far more rapid adoption cycle used by the small-sat community opens up the opportunities for accelerated adoption in larger satellite applications as well. We also expect our technology to stimulate innovation that leading to the design of even more efficient ion thrusters.

小卫星正在推动航天工业的一场革命，未来5年发射的卫星将比过去50年发射的卫星多数千颗。该行业的特点是敏捷的快速周转卫星制造初创企业依赖于模块化硬件，以最大限度地减少设计，并将发射时间从5年缩短到不到2年。据估计，到2026年，小型卫星硬件产业的价值将达到156亿英镑，反过来，在真正全球可访问的互联网和有限资源可持续性的愿景的推动下，下游产业的价值将达到10倍。几乎所有的小型卫星都是使用共享火箭发射的，需要助推器推进器将其定位到最终轨道。离子推进器已经被证明比化学推进器效率高2倍，但是它们有可靠性问题。离子推进器排出的推进剂是带正电的，需要通过发射一束电子来中和，以补偿和平衡失去的电荷。如果没有中和器，卫星将充电并停止运行。中和器是离子推进器上最薄弱的部件。目前的选择是基于热灯丝或微空心阴极，这两种阴极都是脆弱的，能源/燃料密集型的。我们有一个解决方案，通过将电子源完全嵌入合成金刚石衬底中，从而完全将其封装在人类已知的最热和化学稳定的材料之一中，完全克服了这些限制。它能够在环境温度下工作，立即开启，并提供比现有技术高10倍的性能。该项目将侧重于演示小型卫星应用的中和器原型，小型卫星界采用的周期快得多，这也为加速大型卫星应用的采用提供了机会。我们还希望我们的技术能够刺激创新，从而设计出更高效的离子推进器。