Microfabrication of a high pressure bipropellant rocket engine

A high pressure bipropellant rocket engine has been successfully micromanufactured by fusion bonding a stack of six individually etched single crystal silicon wafers. In order to test the device, an innovative packaging technique was developed to deliver liquid coolant and gaseous propellants to the rocket chip at pressures in excess of 200 atm at temperatures above 300°C. Testing continues on the 1.2 g devices, which have been run to date at a chamber pressure of 12 atm, generating 1 N of thrust, and delivering a thrust power of 750 W.