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 年内发射的卫星将比过去 50 年发射的卫星多出数千颗。该行业的特点是卫星制造初创企业敏捷、快速周转依靠模块化硬件来最大限度地减少设计并将发射时间从 >5 年缩短到 <2 年。预计到 2026 年，小型卫星硬件行业将实现价值。 \> 156 亿英镑反过来又使价值 10 倍的下游产业得以发展，这是由真正的全球可访问互联网和有限资源的可持续性愿景所推动的。几乎所有小型卫星都是使用共享火箭发射的，并需要助推器推进器将它们定位到自己的位置。离子推进器已被证明比化学推进器效率高 2 倍，但它们存在可靠性问题。离子推进器排出的推进剂带正电，需要通过发射电子束来中和。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，目前的选择基于热灯丝或微空心阴极，这两种部件都很脆弱且不稳定。能源/燃料密集型。我们有一个解决方案，可以完全克服这些限制，将电子源完全嵌入合成金刚石基材中，从而将其完全封装在人类已知的热稳定性和化学稳定性最高的材料之一中。能够在环境温度下运行，立即启动，性能比现有技术高出 10 倍。该项目将重点展示用于小型卫星应用的原型中和器。小型卫星社区采用的周期要快得多。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。