Design, Fabrication and Performance Testing of a High-impulse, Low-Power Microthruster using Liquid Propellant with High Viscous Fluid Plug

저전력소비, 고출력, 연발형 마이크로 분사기의 설계, 제작 및 성능 시험

A high-impulse, low-power, continuous-shot microthruster has been developed using low boiling temperature liquid-propellant with high viscous fluid-plug. The viscous friction force of the fluid-plug increases the blast pressure and the low boiling temperature liquid-propellant is intended to reduce input power consumption. The three-layer microthruster has been fabricated by surface micromachining as well as bulk micromachining in the size of $7{\times}13{\times}1.5mm^{3}$. A continuous output impulse bit of $6.4{\times}10^{-8}N{\cdot}sec$ has been obtained from the fabricated microthruster using perfluoro normal hexane (FC72) propellant and oil plug, resulting in about ten times increase of the impulse bit using one hundredth electrical input energy compared to the conventional continuous microthruster.