Abstract: A starter circuit particularly suitable for a plasma of an ion engine for a spacecraft includes a power supply having an output inductor with a tap. A switch is coupled to the tap. The switch has a control input. A pulse control logic circuit is coupled to said control input, said pulse control logic circuit controlling said switch to an off state to generate a high voltage discharge.

Abstract: A starter circuit particularly suitable for a plasma of an ion engine for a spacecraft includes a power supply having an output inductor with a tap. A switch is coupled to the tap. The switch has a control input. A pulse control logic circuit is coupled to said control input, said pulse control logic circuit controlling said switch to an off state to generate a high voltage discharge.

Abstract: A starter circuit particularly suitable for a plasma of an ion engine for a spacecraft includes a power supply having an output inductor with a tap. A switch is coupled to the tap. The switch has a control input. A pulse control logic circuit is coupled to said control input, said pulse control logic circuit controlling said switch to an off state to generate a high voltage discharge.

Abstract: A starter circuit particularly suitable for a plasma of an ion engine for a spacecraft includes a power supply having an output inductor with a tap. A switch is coupled to the tap. The switch has a control input. A pulse control logic circuit is coupled to said control input) said pulse control logic circuit controlling said switch to an off state to generate a high voltage discharge.

Abstract: A starter circuit particularly suitable for a plasma of an ion engine for a spacecraft includes a power supply having an output inductor with a tap. A switch is coupled to the tap. The switch has a control input. A pulse control logic circuit is coupled to said control input, said pulse control logic circuit controlling said switch to an off state to generate a high voltage discharge.

Abstract: A power supply circuit for an ion engine suitable for a spacecraft is coupled to a bus having a bus input and a bus return. The power supply circuit has a first primary winding of a first transformer. An upper inverter circuit is coupled to the bus input and the first primary winding. The power supply circuit further includes a first lower inverter circuit coupled to the bus return and the first primary winding. The second primary winding of a second transformer is coupled to the upper inverter circuit. A second lower inverter circuit is coupled to the bus return and the second primary winding.

Abstract: A traveling wave tube incorporates a collector having a plurality of collector electrodes, one or more of which is operated at a potential below that of the cathode so as to collect electrons having associated energies greater than the cathode potential (E.sub.K), and thereby act as a high impedance current source. The current from the collector electrode operated below the cathode potential (E.sub.K) is converted by a power converter to an alternating current signal that can be either magnetically coupled to the high voltage transformer (T.sub.1) of the traveling wave tube power supply, or coupled to an external load with a transformer (T.sub.2), thereby improving the operating efficiency of the traveling wave tube system.

Abstract: An unregulated D.C. input voltage (V.sub.IN) is processed by a high power chopper (34,36) to produce a first chopped signal having the same voltage as the input (V.sub.IN), and by a low power chopper (56,58) to produce a second chopped signal in synchronism with and having a lower voltage than the first chopped signal. The first and second chopped signals are algebraically combined by transformers (52,54) to produce an A.C. output signal which may be converted to D.C. (V.sub.OUT). The second chopped signal may be controlled to have the same polarity relative to the first chopped signal in which case the voltages add to increase the output voltage (V.sub.OUT), or to have the opposite polarity relative to the first chopped signal in which case the voltages subtract to decrease the output voltage (V.sub.OUT). The periods of addition and subtraction are alternated within the period of the first chopped signal.