Cy’s Portfolio
  • team

Rutgers Senior Design

I am working with a multidisciplinary group for my Rutgers Senior Design project, including mechanical, aerospace, and electrical engineers. We are developing a 500W-class arcjet thruster for research purposes, under Dr. Steven Berg, a mechanical and aerospace engineering professor.

  • subsystem

Arcjet PPU

Arcjet thrusters require a Power Processing Unit (PPU) to provide constant-current regulation for the arc, which has a negative differential resistance. They also require a high voltage ignition system to ionize the arc region before the lower voltage, higher current, sustained arc can form. Our PPU will feature both of these capabilities, be fully digitally controlled, and support control and telemetry through standard lab instrument protocols so that it can be easily integrated into experiments.