Silicon Wafer Integration of Ion Electrospray Thrusters Noah Wittel
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Silicon Wafer Integration of Ion Electrospray Thrusters by Noah Wittel Siegel B.S., United States Military Academy (2018) Submitted to the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Aeronautics and Astronautics at the MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY May 2020 © Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2020. All rights reserved. Author.............................................................. Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics May 19, 2020 Certified by. Paulo C. Lozano M. Alemán-Velasco Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics Thesis Supervisor Accepted by . Sertac Karaman Associate Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics Chair, Graduate Program Committee 2 Silicon Wafer Integration of Ion Electrospray Thrusters by Noah Wittel Siegel Submitted to the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics on May 19, 2020, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Aeronautics and Astronautics Abstract Combining efficiency, simplicity, compactness, and high specific impulse, electrospray thrusters provide a unique solution to the problem of active control in the burgeoning field of miniature satellites. With the potential of distributed systems and low cost functionality currently being realized through development of increasingly smaller spacecraft, thruster research must adjust accordingly. The logical limit of this rapidly accelerating trend is a fully integrated silicon wafer satellite. Such a large surface area to volume ratio, however, both necessitates propulsion capability and renders other mechanisms of control unfeasible due to their respective form factors. While development of electrospray thrusters has exploded in the past two decades, current architectures are similarly incompatible with a silicon wafer substrate. This thesis examines the design and testing of a novel hybrid electrospray archi- tecture which combines previous successes of both capillary and externally-wetted ge- ometries. Our project achieved the first passively-fed, pure ionic emission with silicon emitters. More importantly the micro-manufacturing approach offers key advantages in flexibility and overall performance. Through adaption of a innovative approach to black silicon surface treatment, it is possible to tailor hydraulic impedance in order to maximize propellant flow rate and efficiency for a wide range of mission requirements. The manufactured design exhibits operation in the pure ionic mode with 1-ethyl- 3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate and has an emitter density more than an order of magnitude larger than any previous electrospray architecture. Preliminary testing indicates that this will likely translate to a corresponding improvement in thrust density. Further, electrochemical degradation of emitter tips – a primary failure mechanism of electrospray thrusters – appears to occur at a relatively inconsequential rate. Thesis Supervisor: Paulo C. Lozano Title: M. Alemán-Velasco Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics 3 4 Acknowledgments This work was supported by the MIT Lincoln Laboratory Technology Office, funded by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering. The first person to whom I owe thanks is Dr. Paulo Lozano. An incredible advisor, mentor, and professor, his personal investment in both the research and individuals of his lab is continually apparent. Similarly, I appreciate everyone with whom I had the pleasure of working with in the Space Propulsion Lab over these past two years. I am especially grateful for all of the expertise, guidance, and time given by those working on the WaferSat team at Lincoln Laboratory. I owe so much to Dr. Melissa Smith for all of the effort, encouragement, resources, and MEMS knowledge she dedicated to both my learning and the project at large. Without her, this thesis would have a completely different topic. I appreciate all the discussions and meetings with Dr. Dan Freeman; I always left with a much better understanding after fleshing out the details of any given topic. He has a knack for asking pointed questions which challenge the assumptions I tend to ignore. Jimmy McRae was invaluable to this research by manufacturing all of the final test articles. Without his patience to perfect the fabrication process, my data would be either unrecognizable or more likely nonexistent. Finally, I am truly thankful to both John Kuconis and my group leaders for offering this fellowship; it has been a transformative experience. This acknowledgments section would be woefully incomplete without recognition of the many individuals at West Point who prepared me for graduate school. In particular, COL Bret Van Poppel and COL Michael Benson dedicated significant time and energy advising my undergraduate research and guiding me towards the path I am on today. On a different note, I am incredibly appreciative of the boys for helping enforce a generous work-life balance these past two years. Between bricking 3s in Rockwell (RIP to the Small Ballers’ playoff hopes), Sunapee ski trips, an occasional kegger, and 10¢ wings at the Red Hat, I’m confident in saying that my time in Boston has been vastly more enjoyable than I could have anticipated. A special thanks to Aaron 5 Schlenker for putting up with everything from my questionable music taste to random LATEX questions. Jack, Logan, John, Nick, Gabe, Sam, Connor, Noah, and Wade: I hope we find ourselves near each other again at some point – either in the Army or afterwards. Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank my family for their unwaver- ing support throughout this entire process and everything leading up to it. I certainly do not take it for granted. Additionally, the time they dedicated to proofreading this document is greatly appreciated. DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A. Approved for public release. Distribution is unlimited. This material is based upon work supported by the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering under Air Force Contract No. FA8702-15-D-0001. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering. 6 Contents 1 Introduction 17 1.1 Propulsion ................................. 18 1.1.1 Fundamentals of Space Propulsion ............... 18 1.1.2 Electric Propulsion ........................ 23 1.1.3 Electrospray ............................ 26 1.2 Satellite Miniaturization ......................... 32 1.3 Thesis Motivation and Challenges .................... 36 2 Design and Fabrication 39 2.1 Electrospray Design Considerations ................... 39 2.1.1 Electrostatic Thruster Performance Metrics .......... 39 2.1.2 Electrospray Fundamentals .................... 41 2.1.3 Microfluidics ............................ 52 2.1.4 Extractor Design ......................... 56 2.2 Surface Treatments ............................ 58 2.2.1 Theory ............................... 58 2.2.2 Techniques ............................. 61 2.3 Prototypes ................................. 68 2.3.1 Design Iterations ......................... 70 2.3.2 Final Geometry .......................... 79 2.3.3 Fabrication Process ........................ 85 7 3 Results and Discussion 87 3.1 Wetting .................................. 87 3.2 Electrical Testing ............................. 93 3.2.1 Second Generation Emitters ................... 93 3.2.2 Third Generation Emitters .................... 97 3.2.3 Failure Mechanisms ........................ 103 3.3 Post-test Analysis ............................. 106 4 Conclusion 111 4.1 Manufacturing Process .......................... 111 4.2 Thruster Performance .......................... 113 4.3 Future Research .............................. 114 A Wafer Satellite Dynamics and Control 115 A.1 Structure and Assumptions ....................... 117 A.2 Perturbations ............................... 119 A.3 Implementation .............................. 123 A.4 Initial Conditions ............................. 127 A.5 Control Strategy ............................. 129 A.6 State Estimation ............................. 136 A.7 Performance ................................ 139 A.8 Conclusions and Future Work ...................... 146 8 List of Figures 1-1 Effect of specific impulse on required propellant. ............ 20 1-2 Matching specific impulse to ∆v requirements. ............. 22 1-3 Comparison of electrospray architectures. ................ 27 1-4 Polydispersive effects on thruster performance. ............. 30 1-5 Total Nanosatellites and CubeSats Launched as of January 2020 [61]. 33 2-1 Minimum polydispersive efficiency for two mono-disperse species. .. 48 2-2 Electrochemical wear of a silicon array. ................. 50 2-3 Effect of impedance on emission characteristics. ............ 52 2-4 Conical emitter impedance. ....................... 54 2-5 Extractor Geometry. ........................... 56 2-6 Ideal contact angle measurement. .................... 58 2-7 Rough surface wetting models. ...................... 61 2-8 Generic black silicon morphology. .................... 63 2-9 Anisotropic nature of plasma-based black silicon. ........... 64 2-10 Spatial non-uniformities in initial MACE process. ........... 65 2-11 Controlling impedance with MACE time splits. ............ 65 2-12 Thermal oxidation of silicon nanograss [1]. ............... 67 2-13 Dimensions needed for PIR emission. .................. 72 2-14 Initial capillary