Abstract This paper reports to the authors' knowledge, the first use of low-temperature co-fired ceramics (LTCC) to construct a monolithic device with all the architectural elements of a gridded RF ion thruster and its complex internal subsystem structures. Electric thrusters have become a common solution in-space propulsion. Electric propulsion (EP) has continued to gain popularity due to its advantages over conventional chemical thrusters, such as few moving parts and higher efficiencies (specific impulses 1000s). This allows manufacturing with novel construction materials like LTCC to deliver operational goals in a smaller, more integrated form factor. LTCC is leveraged in high-power and high-frequency electronic packaging because of its low dielectric losses and reliability in extreme conditions. Its manufacturing process involves punching and printing conductors on ceramic “green-tape” sheets that are then laminated and fired into a monolithic product. This enables parallel and scalable fabrication and integration of required propulsion components, such as propellant feeds, an ionization cavity, and embedded electrodes, thus simplifying the complexity, fitment, and assembly processes compared to current state-of-the-art EP systems. This work reports the advantages of LTCC as applied to the manufacturability of an electric thruster architecture through the manufacturability and plasma generation demonstration. Plasma was repeatably generated under vacuum with Argon flowing at 95sccm and RF input power of 22W at 882MHz. This effort reflects a NASA technology readiness level (TRL) 2 of a functional EP system and TRL 3 as a plasma generator.
Roddy et al. (2026) studied this question.