Development Study of Mono-Propellant Micro Propulsion Using MEMS Technology

Fabrication technique and performance test of catalytic micro propulsion are treated based on MEMS technology. This propulsion is designed to use hydrogen peroxide as liquid mono-propellant for attitude control of pica-satellite. The propellant is fed into the micro reactor channel and decomposed into hot gas yielding controllable thrust by catalyst. In order to increase the efficiency of the reaction that depends on the contact area of propellant and catalyst, porous surface formation on the channel accompanied by platinum particle deposition has been performed using H$_2$PtCl$_{6}$ solution as a precursor. Several thrusters were fabricated in different concentration of H$_2$PtCl$_{6}$ solution to determine the best quantity of Pt particles. For the comparison of the performance of each thruster, the volume of oxygen generated by the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide and the thrust were measured.red.