Measurement of μN thrust for the micro colloid thruster

Researchs on the micro colloid thruster demand a muN thrust stand. This paper presents a methodology to test the thrust of a micro-fabricated colloid thruster The basic idea of this method is to transform the muN-thrust into displacements by a thin cantilever beam. Displacements of the cantilever beam include deflections caused by the thrust and free vibrations superposed on it. Vibrations are then removed by a fllter from mixed displacements. The operating principle and test facility are introduced in this paper Experimental tests conducted on the home-made micro thruster show that testing results agree with the theory estimation one with about 8% errors.