立方衛星的概念是在1999年被提出，具有體積小、重量輕巧且製作成本低等優勢，因此大量應用於學術的使用。而應用於衛星的推進器主要的功能有變換衛星軌道與傾角、衛星姿態控制以及衛星脫軌等。電力推進器為太空推進器的一類，其中又可分為連續式推進器與脈衝式推進器。著名的連續式電力推進器有霍爾推進器、離子引擎，該類的推進器體積較大且電力需求也較高，但是擁有極高的比衝值與效率；另外，著名的脈衝式電力推進器有脈衝電漿推進器、真空電弧推進器，該類的推進器有較小的體積與重量，電力需求也較小，但推力、比衝值與效率皆較低。
本研究則專注於發展適用於立方衛星的電力推進系統。由於立方衛星的體積較小、重量輕且所能提供的電力有限，因此本研究選擇真空電弧推進器進行研發與改良。本研究提出新概念「並列電極陣列式真空陰極電弧推進器」，該推進器具有多個推進單元組合而成，並且預期可以由誘發電極放電誘發主電極放電。研究結果顯示新概念的推進系統可以成功點火。該概念改善傳統真空電弧推進器因系統內的石墨導電層重複附著而導致整體效率下降。此外，本研究亦提出「多層絕緣層」取代傳統真空電弧推進器中的石墨層與絕緣體，該設計應用「三結點(triple junction)」的物理現象，促使真空電弧推進器的點火更為穩定。本研究也改善實驗室已發展的電感儲能裝置，包含改善電感元件的飽和問題等等。此外，本研究也完成一快速法拉第杯並使用示波器等量測儀器得到推進器的各項參數。
最後，本研究所製作的推進器的誘發電極每發的衝量可達50.867[μN∙s]；比衝值可達849.51 [s]；效率為22.8%；推力功率比為57.6 [μN/W]。

This experiment aims to study and optimize the vacuum arc thruster used in space. The experiments include three parts. In the first part, the study designed and made the thruster. Traditional vacuum arc thrusters use thin graphite to help thrusters to work in space, but the thin graphite leads to vacuum arc thrusters working unsteadily and with low efficiency. Therefore, this experiment proposes two innovative designs for improvement. In the second part, the study optimized and improved the inductive storage circuit. The circuit could input low voltage, then output high pulse voltage and make the thrusters operate in a vacuum. Improvement items include solving the problem of inductance saturation, etc. In the third part, this experiment designed and made the fast Faraday cup, which reduces the influence of electromagnetic interference and then measures the pulsed plasma source. The measurement content includes the ion velocity and ion current density of the plasma generated by the thruster. Finally, this experiment combined the measured ion velocity, the weight change of the thruster, and the ideal power output to obtain the impulse bit of the thruster in this research is 50.867 [μN∙s]; the specific impulse is 849.51 [s]; the efficiency is 22.8%; the thrust power ratio is 57.6 [μN/W].

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