Towards the miniaturization of a space-borne electrostatic energy analyzer: the miniature enhanced geometry electrostatic analyzer (MEGEA)

The Miniature Enhanced Geometry Electrostatic Analyzer (MEGEA) is a spiral 270/spl deg/ Electrostatic Analyzer (EA). Adopting the spiral shape results in an instrument that is a factor of 2.7 smaller by volume than a conventional cylindrical EA with a comparable input cross section and accompanied by a 10% improvement in the energy resolution. The reduction in size is a first step to miniaturizing such instruments for in-situ measurements of space plasma properties. Presented are results from computer simulations of MEGEA and a conventional electrostatic analyzer and some comparisons between these two types of instruments.