Start from the discharge
Plasma devices are unforgiving of assumptions made upstream. We begin with the physics of the discharge that has to be produced, then work outward to the electrical, thermal and vacuum constraints it imposes.
Plasma processes & equipment · Aerospace
Electrical energy in.
Directed plasma out.
STADIUM Aerospace works on the devices that turn electrical power into a directed flow of ionised gas, and on the electronics that feed them. Four things have to hold together at once: the discharge itself, the converter behind it, the vacuum facility it is fired in, and the models used to read the result.
We take on all four, which is the point. A thruster that performs on the bench and a power stage that survives its own load are the same engineering problem seen from two ends.
Capabilities
Four domains, one discharge
- 01
MPD and Arcjet Thrusters
Electromagnetic and electrothermal accelerators that ionise a propellant and expel it at velocities no chemical reaction can reach.
Read more - 02
High-Voltage and Power Electronics
The converters and pulse-forming stages that drive a plasma load, whose impedance collapses the instant breakdown occurs.
Read more - 03
Plasma Test Benches
Vacuum facilities, propellant feed and diagnostics built so that a discharge can be observed, instrumented and repeated.
Read more - 04
Simulation and Measurement Campaigns
Plasma and field models used alongside measurement, each one constraining the other until the two agree.
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Method
How the work is run
Measure rather than assume
Every claim we make about a device is traceable to something instrumented on a bench. Where a model and a measurement disagree, the disagreement is the result, and it is where the next iteration starts.
Build it to be repeated
A test that cannot be reproduced tells you very little. Benches, feed systems and diagnostics are specified so a campaign can be re-run months later and compared against the first one.
Bring us a discharge problem
If you have a device that will not strike reliably, a converter that fails into its own load, or a campaign whose numbers you do not trust, describe it to us.
Get in touch