A MEMS MICROVALVE FOR THE SPACECRAFT ATMOSPHERE MONITOR (SAM) INSTRUMENT

This paper reports on the design, simulation, and characterization of a MEMS gas microvalve (MV) intended to be used as part of the Spacecraft Atmosphere Monitor (SAM) instrument, a highly miniaturized gas chromatograph mass spectrometer (GC-MS) for the International Space Station (ISS). All performance requirements at the system level were considered for flow and pull-in voltage simulations, and multiple tradeoffs were considered to ensure successful operation of SAM. Results of a selection of three MV generations are presented and discussed, including our latest generation, Rev ψ, that meets all the key performance requirements with significant margin with a measured sampling flow above 0.34 sccm and pull-in voltage below 255 V for a current lower than 1 μA.