Thrust and electrical power from solid propellant microrockets. 2. Actuators

Author

Lindsay, W. ; Teasdale, D. ; Milanovic, V. ; Pister, K. ; Fernandez-Pello, C.

Author_Institution

California Univ., Berkeley, CA, USA

fYear

2001

fDate

25-25 Jan. 2001

Firstpage

606

Lastpage

610

Abstract

Progress has been made in the development of flying silicon. Fully self-contained MEMS rockets have been designed, fabricated and tested. A peak thrust of 4 mN was obtained from a rocket with a mass of 0.98 grams. This rocket was comprised of a 3.2 mm inside diameter ceramic tube bonded to a silicon chip containing the rocket nozzle, igniter and an array of twelve thermopiles. One thermopile was measured during combustion and yielded 20 micro Watts of electrical power during a combustion event of approximately 10 seconds. Third-generation devices have demonstrated liftoff.

Keywords

aerospace propulsion; combustion; microactuators; rockets; thermopiles; 0.98 g; 20 mW; MEMS rocket; Si; actuator; ceramic tube; combustion; electrical power; flying silicon; igniter; liftoff; nozzle; solid propellant microrocket; thermopile array; thrust; Automatic testing; Bonding; Ceramics; Combustion; Micromechanical devices; Power measurement; Propulsion; Rockets; Silicon; Solids;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Micro Electro Mechanical Systems, 2001. MEMS 2001. The 14th IEEE International Conference on

Conference_Location

Interlaken, Switzerland

ISSN

1084-6999

Print_ISBN

0-7803-5998-4

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MEMSYS.2001.906614

Filename

906614