ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 10 -- United States Patent no. 12,292,039, issued on May 6.
"Ion propulsion plasma cathode assembly" was invented by Bernard K Vancil (Beaverton, Ore.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Plasma cathodes for Hall and ion thrusters of high power efficiency, high current, low cost, compactness, are provided. The cathodes employ an orifice cup for containing plasma or discharge outside of the cathode insert."
The patent was filed on May 24, 2024, under Application No. 18/674,317.
*For further information, including images, charts and tables, please visit: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co...