A low cost, low mass, high efficiency converter for field emission electrical propulsion (FEEP)

A high voltage power supply that can be used in the control electronics of a a field emission thruster has been designed, breadboarded and tested at the Power Conditioning Section laboratory at ESTEC. The high voltage is achieved by three stages: a Buck Regulator, a Resonant Push-Pull and a Cockcroft-Walton voltage multiplier stage. It can be used as a emitter power supply for Field Emission Electrical Propulsion (FEEP). The main goals on the design of this converter have been cost, mass and simplicity, but also displaying a high efficiency considering the low input bus voltage. Direct regulation from the high output voltage has been achieved, this being the most difficult aspect on the breadboarding of the converter. The paper presents a description of the circuitry used, a dynamic analysis of the converter efficiency measurements and some others considerations.