(MURI 17) Multipactor and breakdown susceptibility and mitigation in space-based RF systems
Abstract
Multipactor onset, growth, associated space charge effects, and transition to ionization breakdown due to ambient or desorbed gases represent key stages of single and multi-frequency RF-driven phenomena that inhibit performance in space-based and terrestrial vacuum electronics devices. Performance degradation through space charge detuning and interference with gain is expected for medium duration pulses, and ion generation and damage for longer pulses. Despite decades of research on multipactor and breakdown, fundamental research questions remain. Multipactor materials data is poorly characterized, including energy and angular dependent secondary electron emission yields, and emission distributions. Models often exclude key effects such as space charge, which, however, are predicted to play an important role in multipactor growth, saturation, and interference with device operation. Indeed, the multipactor characteristics, baseline performance data, and geometric effects data are lacking and thus deserve detailed research attention. These include the impact of seed electron generation from sources including cosmic rays, field emission, photoemission, triple points, volumetric charged dust particles, metastables, and photons, among others.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Apr 09, 2018
- Source ID
- FA95501810062
Entities
People
- John Paul Verboncoeur
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Michigan State University
- United States Air Force