Measurement of conductivity and charge storage in insulators related to spacecraft charging

Author

Frederickson, A.R. ; Dennison, J.R.

Author_Institution

Caltech Jet Propulsion Lab., Pasadena, CA, USA

fYear

2003

fDate

19-22 Oct. 2003

Firstpage

24

Lastpage

27

Abstract

Novel methods have been developed to measure conductivity and charge storage in thin film insulating spacecraft materials subjected to space radiations. For a variety of such samples, conductivity values differ by up to 10⁴ from values based on ASTM standards. Conductivity and charge storage properties are found to be functions of prior radiation history. A highly-charged insulator emits electrons for hours (Malter Effect) after the irradiation beam is turned off. Visible light can be used to induce emission from previously charged samples with shallow traps.

Keywords

aerospace materials; dielectric materials; electron beam effects; spacecraft charging; surface charging; surface conductivity; Malter effect; charge storage; conductivity; insulators; shallow traps; space radiations; spacecraft charging; thin film insulating spacecraft materials; Aerospace materials; Aircraft manufacture; Charge measurement; Conductivity measurement; Current measurement; Insulation; Material storage; Space charge; Space vehicles; Transistors;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Electrical Insulation and Dielectric Phenomena, 2003. Annual Report. Conference on

Print_ISBN

0-7803-7910-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/CEIDP.2003.1254785

Filename

1254785