55th International Astronautical Congress 2004 - Vancouver, Canada

IAC-04-S.4.04

DEVELOPMENT OF RIT-MICROTRHUSTERS

Horst W. Loeb, K.-H. Schartner, St. Weis, D. Feili, and B.K. Meyer
1st Institute of Physics, Giessen University, Germany

Davar.Feili@exp1.physik.uni-giessen.de
Karl-Heinz.Schartner@exp1.physik.uni-giessen.de

ABSTRACT

The electric propulsion activities of Giessen University were focussed first on a 10-cm rf-ion thruster RIT-10
and lateron on scaled-up engines with 15, 20, 22, 26, and 35 cm of ionizer diameter.
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As recent secondary propulsion applications need EP-thrust levels of less than 1 mN, Giessen University
started a scaling-down program of its RIT-family towards 1 to 4 cm diameter aggregates.

In this procedure all design parameters and materials of the larger engines were adopted. This holds for the
ionizer/xenon-injection system, the neutralizer, and especially to the grid system which is unchanged with
respect to the material (carbon composite), the grid thicknesses and the interspace, the beamlet holes
(1.9 and 1.2 mm of diameters), and the grid voltages (+1.2 kV and -300 V).

The optimization concentrates on the geometry of the rf-ionizer and its working parameters. Established
scaling laws suggest that the rf-frequency and the discharge pressure should increase inversely proportional
to the ionizer radius R. The optimum ionizer length scales with (2R)0.66. Due to the increasing surface-to-
volume-ratio of the discharge vessel, the scaling down will require increased ion production costs and
specific power data.
Based on the well-known RIT-10 performance data and the scaling laws, the scheduled data of RIT-1, RIT-2,
RIT-3, and RIT-4 are presented.

For verification, a 4-cm diam rf-thruster has been designed and built and is now under testing in a new
2.2 m3 vacuum facility which is equipped with a 12,000 ltr/s cryopump (Xenon). A thrusting range of 250 µN
to 2,5 mN is envisaged at 33 W/mN, 67 % of power efficiency, and 73 % of propellant efficiency. As the
second scaling-down step, a 2.3-cm diam microthruster (with 100 µN to 1 mN of thrust) is just being
manufactured at Giessen University.

The new Giessen effort will benefit from the fact that among the class of gas-discharge ion microthrusters,
the rf-type seems to be most favourable because no discharge electrodes, magnetic pole shoes, etc. must
be installed inside the ionizer vessel and especially because of its excellent controllability by regulating gas
flow, rf-power, and voltage separately.

1. Introduction spacecraft mass, the EP-thrusting requirement

1.1. General Situation
Since about one decade, electric propulsion (EP)
has reached the stage of flight readiness, and
several EP-missions demonstrated already its
potentiality.
At the beginning of the EP-era, the users' interest
was focussed more or less on the commercial
benefits of North-South-Stationkeeping of
geosynchronous satellites. Depending on the
ranges for that task between 10 and 50 mN.
More recently, primary propulsion applications
became of interest, for which a single-engine
thrust of 75 mN (as in the case of the small
precursor spacecrafts "Deep Space One" and
"SMART-1") up to 150 mN (for orbit raising or
ambitious planetary missions like "Bepi
Colombo") is required.
On the lower side of the thrust level spectrum,
several scientific missions ask for miniature EP-

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 55th International Astronautical Congress 2004 - Vancouver, Canada
engines with less than 100 µN up to only a few
micronewtons. Attractive applications of this
mission class are accurate drag-free operations,
the fine-pointing attitude control, and the
controlled formation flying of spacecraft fleets.
Several coming ESA missions like GOCE,
SMART-2, MICROSCOPE, GAIA, LISA, and
IRSI-Darwin will benefit from EP-microthrusters.1
Additional EP-applications could be spacecraft
discharging, changing of spin rate, East-West-
Stationkeeping, etc.
The advantages of miniature EP-thrusters over
the competitive chemical systems are their
excellent controllability and mass savings at long-
term missions owing to the higher specific
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impulse.
At the moment, FEEP-, Colloid-, and PPT-
engines are considered to do these secondary
propulsion tasks. However, the used propellants,
metals, electrolyts, or Teflon-decomposition
products risk to contaminate the hosting
spacecraft.
Therefore, the question is of interest whether gas-
discharge ion thrusters, operated with Xenon, can
be scaled down towards miniature engines at
acceptable efficiencies.
1.2. Giessen Activities
The rf-ion thruster research started at Giessen
University in 1962, focussing on a 10-cm ionizer
diameter model. This RIT-10 type went into
industry (MBB, later Dasa, now EADS Astrium
GmbH) in 1970. It was space-tested on-board
EURECA in 1992, accomplished more recently
the ARTEMIS rescue mission, and was
successfully lifetime tested for more than
20,000 hrs at ESTEC.
Besides the standard model, the scaled-up RIT-
15, RIT-20, and RIT-35 thrusters were developed
by inhouse activities at Giessen University.2
Furthermore, the 26-cm rf-thruster ESA-XX and
the 22-cm diam Astrium-engine RIT-XT has been
or is just being tested in a Giessen facility,
respectively.
Between 1968 and 1973, also a small 4-cm
ionizer diameter rf-thruster RIT-4 was
investigated at Giessen University.3,4,5 For lack of
applications at that time, the activities were
terminated in favour of the standard 10-cm
model.
Based on the mentioned new aspects, the R & D-
work on rf-micronewton engines again started.
Established scaling laws and modern EP-thruster
technique enable the design of promising
microengines with ionizer diameters between 1
and 4 cm.
For testing, a new EP-vaccum facility wit 2.2 m3
of chamber volume has been put in operation.
At present similar acitivities at the Pennsylvania
State University are reported.6
2. Characteristics and Potentialities
of Rf-Microthrusters
2.1. RIT Components
RIT-type engines have been repeatedly
described (see e.g. Ref. 7 and 8) and will be
sketched only briefly:
• The Xenon propellant enters the gas-
discharge vessel through an isolator and an
integrated gas distributor.
The isolator must be dimensioned in such a
way that it operates far away from breakdown
conditions. The gas distributor injects gas jets
into the discharge vessel nearly
perpendicularly to the vessel axis in order to
keep the propellant atoms long enough in the
discharge volume in order to be ionized.
Favoured material of this part of the thruster is
Macor. As the product of isolator canal length
and gas pressure should be kept constant, a
scaling-down of the isolator size is limited.
• The cylindrical discharge vessel is surrounded
by the induction coil of a rf-generator*). Thus,
an electric eddy-field is being induced which
accelerates the discharge electrons. They
suffer elastic collisions with neutral particles,
moving to and fro, and assume (nearly) a
Maxwellian velocity distribution, the tail of
which ionizes the propellant atoms.
In this way, a self-sustaining, electrodeless,
annular gas-discharge is generated. The
plasma densities and electron temperatures
reach some 1011/cm3 and some 104 K.
Favoured material of the discharge vessel is
alumina (formerly quartz).
Geometry and working parameters of the
ionizer should be carefully optimized (see
below) in the scaling procedure.
*)
An interesting question to be answered is whether a
capacitively coupled rf-discharge can compete with the
standard inductive rf-energy coupling of the RIT-
devices when scaling down them.
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 55th International Astronautical Congress 2004 - Vancouver, Canada

• The ion extraction, focussing, and acceleration

is done by a two grid-system. The acceleration
length must be made as short as possible,
following the Langmuir-Child's law. Therefore,
at least the first grid should be manufactured
from carbon-composite. Other useful materials
are graphite, molybdenum, titanium, and invar.
The decel electrode is open shaped. Dishing
of grids is not necessary, too.
The optimized beamlet-hole geometry of the
larger thrusters will also be used for the small
rf-engines. Thus, the scaling-down reduces
only the number of extraction borings (see
Fig. 1).
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• The beam neutralization could be done by a

small conventional electron source. By
switching the accel electrode shortly on
positive potential, neutralizer electrons are
drawn into the ionizer and start the rf-
discharge.

2.2. RIT Advantages Fig.1: View of the holder grids of some rf-
microthrusters. Each of the N beamlet holes
Within the class of gas-discharge electric is 1.9 mm in diam. Assuming a constant ion
thrusters, the rf-type seems to be the most current density per hole and a constant
suitable for scaling-down, because it works voltage U = +1.2 kV, the thrust F can be
without any discharge electrodes, magnetic pole calculated.
shoes, etc. inside the ionizer.
Besides the standard cylindrical vessel, the rf- Compared with the actual microthrusters like
ionizer can even be shaped with a rectangular FEEP, the possibility to utilize the inert gas
cross-section if desired (see Fig. 1). Xenon, the operation at voltages around 1 kV and
Corresponding R & D work with hydrogen the insensitivity to backstreaming electrons are
sources proved the successful operation.9Another favourable.
advantage of the rf-discharge with inductive
coupling is the high electron temperature Te near
the discharge vessel walls being the
consequence of the induction law, i.e. the
induced electrical field strength Eind(r) (see Fig.
2).8 Together with the plasma density n, which
decreases towards the walls due to the ambipolar
diffusion, the extractable ion current profile
ji ( r ) ~ n Te is rather flat. This enables to drill
the beamlet holes in the grid system close to the
ionizer walls.
Experiments should show whether more, i.e. also
peripheral extraction holes could be used than
considered conservatively in Fig. 1 for the RIT-
microthrusters.)

Other advantages of the rf-type are its excellent
regulation by varying gas flow, rf-power, and
extraction voltages independently and the long
lifetime due to the absence of discharge
electrodes.
Fig. 2: Experimental discharge parameters of a
10-cm rf-ion source in their radial variation.
The n- and Te-data have been obtained by
double Langmuir probes averaged over many
test runs.8

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 55th International Astronautical Congress 2004 - Vancouver, Canada

3. Optimization of the Ionizer i.e. lopt, increases with decreasing atomic weight
of RF-Microthrusters of the propellant.8*)
On the other hand, the discharge vessel length
3.1. Discharge Parameters should be as short as possible to minimize the
plasma recombination losses on the ionizer wall.
The induced electric field Eind (see Fig. 2) is not
strong enough to accelerate the discharge Fig. 3 shows the three optimum discharge
electrons during a single half rf-period up to parameters (lopt, νopt, popt) calculated by Equs. 1
energies which enable them to ionize. However, if and 2 with the carefully investigated RIT-10
the electrons suffer elastic collisions with ionizer as the reference.
(approximately) 180-deg. turns just when the E-
field direction reverses, an energy accumulation
takes place.
The related statistics can be affected in a
favourable manner if the discharge vessel radius
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R (or its circumference 2πR), the discharge

pressure p (or the mean free flight-time τ ~ 1/p),
and the rf-frequency ν (or the half rf-period 1/2ν)
are coupled to each other by the relation:

p ~ ν ~ 1/ R (1)

This scaling law has the consequence that both

the pressure and the frequency should be
increased when scaling-down the ionizer in order
to keep optimum plasma conditions.8
As concerning the optimum rf-frequency νopt,
however, additional aspects play a role like
matching conditions of the rf-power, eddy
currents in the structural parts of the thruster, rf-
radiation losses, etc.

3.2. Ionizer Length

Another parameter to be optimized is the
discharge vessel length l. Extended experiments
with different-sized rf-ionizers and different
working gases yielded for Xenon the empirical
relation:
l opt ~ ( 2R ) 0.66 + d (2)
d means the thickness of the gas distributor
and/or grid the system which intrude into the
ionizer cylinder. This means that lopt – d is the
effective length of the plasma column.
A qualitative explanation of Equ. 2 is based on a
compromise between two oppositely running
effects:
On one hand, the discharge vessel should be
made as long as possible to keep the neutral
propellant atoms long enough in the plasma
volume to be ionized. This assumption is
supported by the fact that the exponent of Equ. 2,
Fig. 3: Optimum rf-discharge parameters as
calculated by scaling laws vs. the ionizer
diameter.
We mention that electronic aspects can force the
designer of a large rf-thruster to prefer longer
discharge vessels than the plasma optimization
suggests. E.g., the RIT-XT, operating at only 860
kHz of frequency, needs a rather long rf-coil with
an increased number of turns and sufficient
distances between them. To reduce the
recombination losses on the ionizer walls, conical
or semi-spherical discharge vessels can be
preferred over the standard cylinder geometry.2
*)
For the formerly used Mercury as the propellant, the
optimization yielded an exponent of 0.535. The
quotient of the Xenon and Mercury exponents, namely
0.66/0.535 = 1.234 is inversely proportional to the
square root of the atomic masses
200.6 / 131.3 = 1.236. Thus, the optimum ionizer
length depends directly on the thermal velocity of the
propellant atoms.

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 55th International Astronautical Congress 2004 - Vancouver, Canada

However, in the case of small rf-thrusters which 1 

S 1
are operated at higher frequencies with a reduced w~ = 2 +  (4)
numer of coil turns, these aspects seem to be V  R l opt 
 
less important.

4. Scheduled Performance Data

of RF-Microthrusters

4.1. Thrust

If we assume that the grid and beamlet hole

geometry as well as the plasma density and the
grid voltages are kept constant for all RIT-
engines, then their thrust depends only on the
extraction area of the holder grid, i.e. on the
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number of extraction holes.

Fig. 4 shows that in this way the nominal thrust
and the throttling range of the rf-microthrusters
RIT-1, RIT-2, RIT-3, and RIT-4*) can be estimated
in relation to the larger engines RIT-10 EVO, RIT-
15, and RIT-XT.

The thrust F is coupled to the beam current J by

the well known relation

F = η d ⋅ J 2m(U + Vp ) / q (3)

Assuming a divergence efficiency ηd = 0.98, a
typical positive high voltage U = 1.2 kV, a plasma
potential Vp = 30 V, a mean ion mass m = 131.3
amu, and a mean ion charge q = 1.02 e (at 1 % of
Xe++ ions). The J/F-ratio becomes 17.8 mA/mN.
4.2. Ion Production Costs and Power
Consumption
In the double-logarithmic graph of Fig. 4, the
measured ion production costs of the three larger
rf-engines are placed on a straight line. This
allows us to estimate the ion production costs for
the microthrusters by extrapolation.
The reason why the costs w increase when
scaling down the thruster is based on the
increasing ionizer wall surfaces S (where the
plasma losses occur) relative to the discharge
volume V (where the ions are generated); we get
for a cylinder:
*)
Note that the numbers in the marking of the RIT-
microthrusters give not always the exact ionizer
diameter (in centimeters), contrary to the larger
engines. This is caused by the discontinuous radius of
the outer hole circles which becomes relevant for a
decreasing number of beamlets.
Fig. 4: Nominal thrust with throttling range and
ion production costs of 6 rf-engines vs. the
extraction area diameter. The values of the
three larger thrusters have been measured.
The multiplication of the ion production costs w
with the ion beam current J yields the necessary
rf-discharge power. Together with the beam
power J(U+Vp) and the drain losses on the accel
grid 0.02⋅J⋅Uex we get the thruster power input P
(without neutralizer; see Fig. 5):
P = J(U + Vp ) + wJ + 0.02 J ⋅ U ex =
(5)
J(U + Vp + w + 0.02 U ex )
We use a conventional drain current percentage
of 2 % of the beam current and an extraction
voltage of 1.5 kV, i.e. a negative high voltage of
300 V.
The quotient of the beam power over the thruster
power input gives the power efficiency ηe =
J(U+Vp)/P; the power-to-thrust-ratio P/F is usually
called specific power Psp. ηe decreases and Psp
increases by scaling down the RIT-motor (see
Fig. 6), following the increasing ion production
costs.

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RIT-1 RIT-2 RIT-3 RIT-4 RIT-10 V& = V& i + V& o , V& i = 14.0 sccm ⋅ J / A and
(6)
800 8 V& o = 6.10 ⋅ 10 − 4 sccm ⋅ N ⋅ (p opt 4 ⋅ 10 − 4 Torr )
600 6
500 5 The propellant efficiency η m = V& i V& decreases
400 4 when scaling down the engine size (see Fig. 6)
caused by the increasing discharge pressure.
300 3
The same belongs to the specific impulse Isp; with
the ion velocity vi = 42.8 km/s (at U = 1.2 kV) and
200 2 go as the gravity acceleration of the Earth, we get:

I sp = 42.8 km / s ⋅ η m g o (7)

propellant flow rate, sccm

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100
thruster power input, W

1
80 0.8

60 0.6
50 0.5
40 0.4

30 0.3

20 0.2
.
V P

10 0.1

8 0.08

6 0.06
5 0.05
4 0.04
1 2 3 4 5 6 8 10
ionizer diameter, cm

Fig. 5: Thruster power input P and propellant

flow rate V& (without neutralizer) of 4 rf- Fig. 6: Power efficiency ηe, propellant efficiency
microthrusters vs. ionizer diameter as ηm and specific power consumption Psp of 4
calculated by scaling laws with the RIT-10 rf-microthrusters vs. ionizer diameter as
data as the reference. calculated by scaling laws with the RIT-10
data as reference.
4.3. Propellant Consumption
Table 1 summarizes the scheduled data of four rf-
The propellant flow rate V& (see Fig. 5) is microthrusters together and the measured data of
composed by the ions ( V& i ) and the neutral gas RIT-10 as the reference.

losses ( V& ). The first depends only on the beam

o
current J, the latter can be calculated on the basis
of RIT-10 by using the scaling law of popt (see Fig.
3) and the number N of extraction holes. Without
neutralizer we get:

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 55th International Astronautical Congress 2004 - Vancouver, Canada

RIT-10 RIT-4 RIT-3 RIT-2 RIT-1

ionizer diameter, cm 10 4 2.8 1.9 1.25
extraction system diameter, cm 9 3.1 2.0 1.2 0.65
number of beamlet holes 1483 151 55 19 7
open area of extraction system, % 53.5 34.1 25.3 19.0 16.1
*)
discharge vessel length, cm 4.5 2.9 2.4 1.9 1.5
number of rf-coil turns 9 6 5 4 3
rf-frequency, MHz 1 2.5 3.5 5 8
discharge pressure, Torr 4⋅10-4 1⋅10-3 1.4⋅10-3 2.1⋅10-3 3.2⋅10-3
nominal thrust, mN 25 2.5 1 0.35 0.1
ion beam current, mA 444 44.4 17.8 6.2 1.8
ion beam density, mA/cm2 **) 6.98 5.88 5.07 5.48 5.42
ion production costs, eV/ion 352 585 760 950 1200
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discharge power, W 156.3 26.0 13.5 5.9 2.15

beam power, W 546.1 54.6 21.9 7.63 2.20
total thruster input power, W***) 715.7 81.9 35.9 13.7 4.41
power efficiency, % 76.3 66.7 60.9 55.6 50.0
specific power, W/mN 28.6 32.8 35.9 39.2 44.1
ions flow rate, sccm 6.23 0.623 0.250 0.0870 0.0253
neutrals flow rate, sccm 0.905 0.230 0.117 0.0608 0.0342
total gas flow rate, sccm***) 7.135 0.853 0.367 0.148 0.0595
propellant efficiency, % 87.3 73.0 68.0 58.8 42.6
specific impulse, sec 3810 3187 2969 2567 1860
*) Caused by the gas distributor, the effective length is 4 mm shorter.
**) In relation to the extraction system area.
***) Without neutralizer.

Table 1: Scheduled data of small rf-ion engines calculated on the basis of scaling laws with the measured
RIT-10 performance data as reference. The grid geometry and voltages have been kept unchanged.

5. Experimental Verification decelerator has an open area of 3.2 cm in

5.1. RIT-4
The calculated data must be verified by
measurement. In order to limit the first scaling-
down step, a 4-cm diam rf-thruster RIT-4 has
been designed, built, and tested.
diameter.
The thruster housing (with two high voltage and rf-
feed through plugs, each) consists of a mounting
flange, and two half-shells of punched aluminum.
The housing diameter is 7.5 cm; the total thruster
length is 6.5 cm. The laboratory prototype weighs
0.6 kg.

Figs. 7 and 8 show a drawing true to scale and a
photo of the RIT-4 engine, respectively. In Fig. 1,
the arrangement of the 151 beamlet holes in the
first grid is depicted.
The 4-cm ionizer-diameter thruster has been
conventionally designed.
The relatively large isolator/gas-injector system
and the grid-supports are made of Macor or
Stenan. The discharge vessel is manufactured
from quartz. Two rf-coils with 9 and 6 turns are
available, respectively.
The first grid is 0.3 mm thick; its borings are 1.9
mm in diam. The second grid is 1.2 mm thick with
borings of 1.2 mm in diam. The interspace
between the grids is 0.6 mm. The grounded
5.2. Test Facility Big Mac
For testing the RIT-4 and other rf-microthrusters,
a 2.2-m3 high vacuum test stand, formerly used for
spacecraft charging experiments by electrons, has
been refurbished and adapted for operation of
Xenon-ion microthrusters.
Figs. 9 and 10 show a drawing true to scale and a
photo of the test facility which is named "Big Mac"
due to its shape.
The pumping system consists of a 500 ltr/s-
turbopump and an additionally installed cryogenic
pump with 12,000 ltr/s for Xenon. At full-power
operation of RIT-4, a background vacuum of
2⋅10-6 Torr can be maintained.

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 55th International Astronautical Congress 2004 - Vancouver, Canada
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Fig. 7: Drawing true to scale of the RIT-4 Fig. 8: Photo of the disassembled RIT-4
microthruster. microthruster

Fig. 9: Drawing true to scale of the new 2.2 m3 EP-test facility "Big Mac" of Giessen University.

The thruster and its rf-generator are mounted on a 5.3. RIT-2

frame of structural bars. There is enough space to
instal later a thrust balance and a rotating
diagnostic beam scanner.
The beam collector is made of copper sheet. It is
water-cooled and covered with a carbon mat. The
collector surface is inclined with respect to the
beam axis in order to reflect the Xenon particles
towards the cryogenic pump and to reduce the
deposition of sputtered target material on the
thruster.
During the tests of the RIT-4 motor, the second
scaling-down step has already been initiated. A
RIT-2 engine is being built in the mechanical
workshop of the institute.
Fig. 11 shows a drawing true to scale.
The rf-coil of RIT-2 has only 4 turns due to the
envisaged higher frequency. The grid system can
be built alternatively with 55, 31, or 19 extraction
borings. The geometry of each beamlet electrode
is identical with the RIT-4 concept.

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 55th International Astronautical Congress 2004 - Vancouver, Canada
The new constructive elements of RIT-2 (and
lateron of RIT-1) are:
• The discharge vessel consists only of a
ceramic cylinder which can be easily changed
for a shorter or longer one during optimization
procedure.
• All thruster parts are put together (like in a
puzzle or Lego toy) and then clamped together
by three screw rods.
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Fig. 10: Photo the new 2.2-m3 EP-test facility "Big
Mac" of Giessen University.
Fig. 11: Drawing true to scale of the RIT-2
microthruster
6. References
1. E. Chesta, D. Nicolini, D. Robertson, and
G. Saccoccia: "Experimental Studies Related
to Field Emission Thruster Operation: Emission
Impact on Solar Cell Performances and
Neutralization Electron Backstreaming
Phenomena", IEPC-03-304, Toulouse 2003.
2. H. W. Loeb, K.-H. Schartner D. Feili,
H.-P. Harmann, H. Bassner, R. Killinger,
H. Leiter, and J. Mueller:" Recent
Investigations, Developments and Industrial
Applications of RF-Ion Thrusters in Germany",
IAC-02-S.4.06, Houston 2002.
3. H.W. Loeb: "State of the Art and Recent
Developments of the Radio Frequency Ion
Motors", AIAA-69-285, Williamsburg 1969.
4. F.M. Trojan, K.E. Bussweiler, H.H. Lang, and
H.W. Loeb: "Development of the Radio
Frequency Microthruster RIT-4, AIAA 72-473,
Bethesda 1972.
5. H. Lang and H.W. Loeb: "Mission Capabilities
of the RIT-Engines", AIAA 73-1073, Lake
Tahoe 1973.
6. M. Micci, V. Mistoco, and S. Bilen:
"Development and Chamber Testing of a
Miniature Radio-Frequency Ion Thruster for
Microspacecraft", 4th Intern. Spacecraft Prop.
Conf., Sardinia, June 2004
7. H.W. Loeb:"Recent Work on Radio Frequency
Ion Thrusters", J. Spacecraft & Rockets 8, 5,
494, 1971
8. H.W. Loeb, J. Freisinger, K.H. Groh, and
A. Scharmann: "State-of-the-Arat of the RIT-
Ion Thrusters and Their Spin-Offs", IAF-88-
258, Bangalore 1988.
9. R. Reuschling, J. Freisinger, and H.W. Loeb:
"Plasma Diagnostics in a Rectangular Rf-Ion
Source", Proc. XIth Intern. Symposium on
Discharges, Vol. 2, 437 - 440, Berlin 1984