Characteristics and Performances of a 100-W Hall Thruster for Microspacecraft

In this paper, we examine the characteristics of the ISCT100 thruster, a miniature xenon-fueled 100-W permanent magnet Hall thruster (HT) suited for microspacecraft propulsion. The impact of the thruster design upon discharge behavior, ion beam properties, and performances is examined as for two discharge channel geometries as well as two values of the magnetic field strength. Thrust, specific impulse, and efficiency obtained between 50 and 200 W are compared with the ones of other low-power HTs.