METHOD OF INTEGRAL DIAGNOSTIC OF HF INDUCTION GAS-DISCHARGE DEVICE Russian patent published in 2016 - IPC H05H1/46 

FIELD: physics.

SUBSTANCE: invention relates to gas-discharge plasma sources, in particular to HF induction (HFI) devices, used in process sources of plasma or ions, as well as in ion thrusters or non-thrusting ion systems of ion "guns" type for removing space debris from working orbits. Set task is achieved due to that during integrated diagnostics of gas-discharge device HFI by preliminary measurement at operating frequency of electric parameters of inductor in gas-discharge unit, registration of inductor current without discharge and with discharge with help of two meters - main device, installed on grounding output of inductor, and control device, installed on discharge power supply line, at exact matching of HF generator with load, and further determination of HF power leakage in discharge power supply system preliminary stage of measurements is set by difference between readings of both devices. At this stage of diagnostics additional measurement of active resistance of inductor in free space is performed, excluding occurrence of eddy currents in electrically conducting parts of structure, and control device for measuring inductor current, recording leakage of HF power is installed on HF generator output. Said additional operations of method specify HF power loss in eddy currents, induced in electrically conducting structural elements, located near inductor. Obtained data allows recovering pure loss in inductor, i.e. specifying power balance of device. And in part of placement of control meter of inductor current at HF generator output it becomes possible also to take into account HF power losses in discharge power supply line, including connecting coaxial cable and matching device.

EFFECT: detailed balance of HF power of HFI device through determination of power losses in eddy currents, induced in device structure and in discharge power supply line, which enables to detect quality of structural and layout solutions of device.

1 cl, 1 dwg