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The purpose of this paper is to comprehensively review most of the significant works ever done worldwide to study the effects of essential parameters on pulsed plasma thruster (PPT) performance and to analyze the effects of each parameter on PPT performance.

All the important works studying PPT performance are categorized by the parameter they have studied and its effect on the thruster performance, and their works have been reviewed to analyze the influence of each parameter.

The analysis leads to elucidation of the effects of different geometrical parameters including aspect ratio, electrode width, electrode spacing, electrode shape, electrode length, and flare angle, in addition to the effects of other parameters such as electrode material, propellant type, propellant temperature, spark distance from propellant, pulse repetition frequency, discharge energy, capacitance, and hood angle on PPT performance.

The analysis is mainly focused on parallel‐rail breech‐fed PPTs and side‐fed PPTs and does not deal with co‐axial PPTs.

The paper reviews and analyses many of the considerable works ever done to contribute to clarify the effects of different parameters on PPT performance. The results of the current analysis can be of invaluable assistance in PPT design and optimization procedure and help the designer to develop a system with better performance characteristics.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of power on pulsed plasma thruster (PPT) discharge current with respect to its peak, duration, and behavior while the power elevates in a low power range.

A rectangular parallel‐plate breech‐fed PPT has been developed with a self‐inductor coupling element connecting the PPT cathode to the ignitor plug cathode. The PPT has been operated in vacuum chamber at 10⁻⁶ mbar and its discharge current has been recorded using a Rogowski coil while input power has been changed by means of varying the capacitor voltage at given capacitance and frequency.

The analysis leads to elucidate the effects of input power on discharge current of a PPT employing a self‐inductor coupling element. The power varies within a range of less than 10 to more than 50 W. The results show that current peak rises from 5 to 10 kA while discharge duration and behavior seems to be independent of power within the operating range. Additionally, utilization of the coupling element seems to change the typical oscillating behavior of PPT discharge to a more efficient behavior.

The analysis is mainly focused on breech‐fed PPTs while employing a coupling element.

The paper analyzes the influence of power on discharge current of a PPT employing a self‐inductor coupling element. It clarifies the behavior of current peak, duration and behavior while power varies in a low power range. The effect of coupling element is shown to be promising. The results can be a help in design of μPPTs.

The purpose of this paper is to develop and characterize a pulsed plasma thruster (PPT) that does not need a spark plug to initiate the plasma discharge.

Two parallel rail thrusters were built and their performances were characterized inside a vacuum chamber to elucidate the effect of vacuum level and thruster geometry on the performance. The thruster electrical performance was quantified by measuring the voltage output from a Rogowski coil connected to the power supply. The thrust produced by the developed thruster was estimated by measuring the force exerted by the plume on a light weight pendulum, whose deflection was measured using a laser displacement sensor.

The thruster can operate without a spark plug. In general, the performance parameters such as thrust, mass ablation, impulse bit, and specific impulse per discharge, would increase with increasing pressure levels up to an optimum level due to the increase in discharge energy as well as the decrease in the total impedance of the plasma discharge. The discharge frequency is function of the breakdown potential, the total resistance in the equivalent circuit, and the capacitance of the circuit. The total impedance of the circuit decreases with pressure level and hence the discharge energy increases. The thrust efficiency is found to be affected by the thruster geometry as well as the discharge energy.

The studies reported in this paper have been carried out at relatively higher pressure levels compared than prevail in space. However, it should be possible to extrapolate these results to the lower vacuum levels at which the performance is independent of the geometry.

The results reported in this paper suggest a design guideline for auto‐initiated PPT.

If the spark plug is eliminated, the size of the thrusters can be reduced and arrays of such thrusters can be manufactured using micro electro mechanical systems techniques, which can provide tremendous control authority over the satellite positioning.

The pulsed plasma thruster (PPT) is one sort of promising electric thrusters, but the low efficiency is always a big problem for PPT. Many researches have been working on solving this problem. However, there is still no significant breakthrough. This paper aimed to discuss some methods for improving the PPT's efficiency.

The causes for the low efficiency by analyzing the theoretical models of PPT are discussed, and the influences on PPT's performance investigated in terms of the structural or electrical parameters.

The change of structural or electrical parameters which influence the thrust efficiency significantly are taken into account. In the process of designing PPT, optimized structural and electrical parameters should be chosen to attain a better performance.

This analysis is mainly based on the parallel‐rail PPT.

The result of analysis is adopted, the higher thrust efficiency of PPT is expectable.

By introducing theoretical models and analyzing results of some researcher's experiments, this paper offers a method of designing PPT and attempts to help designer to choose appropriate structural and electrical parameters.