Surface Modification of Flat Cable Conductors to Prevent Surface Charging

Abstract

A method of making charge dissipative both surfaces of Flexible Cable Connectors (FCCs), used for Solar Arrays in GEO, by specially developed ion beam surface treatment is described in this study. FCC’s made of dielectric space polymer Kapton100HN with shaped/grooved surfaces and back surfaces containing embedded inorganic particles have been made charge dissipative, with required values of surface resistivity and in a wide space-defined temperature range. The method comprises controllably carbonizing the surface of the polymer-based material in a vacuum environment with simultaneous surface renewal, by bombarding the surface with an ion beam from a linear gaseous high-current technological ion beam source of back gas with added required amount of a carbonaceous gas for simultaneous carbonized surface renewal in a dynamic way. Surface resistivity values of ~10 MΩ/square at room temperature were achieved. The treated FCCs kept the surface charge dissipation properties at least in the space-related temperature range of ±150 °C, have been shown to be resistant to thermal cycling, being durable, radiation resistant and surface charge dissipative in imitated GEO environment for at least 15 years of GEO space equivalent, with the influence on the final thermal optical properties almost the same as on original FCCs surfaces.