Final characterizations of MEMS-based pyrotechnical microthrusters

Within an European project,1 MEMS-based pyrotechnical devices have been developed. The operational concept is simply based on the combustion of a solid energetic material stored in a micromachined chamber. One possible application is the micropropulsion for nanosatellite but other applications can be addressed as microrocket for military needs. Arrays built to validate the concept contain 16 Ø1.5 mm × 1.5 mm rockets on 200 mm2. After a brief overview of the design and dimension, this paper presents the final experimentations that permitted to validate the pyrotechnical thrusters concept. At the millimetre scale, having a successful and reproducible ignition as well as a sustained propellant's combustion is a critical point of this technology. That is why, ignition, combustion and thrust has been experimented with great attention to fully validate the concept and results are reported in this paper.