Patent ID: 8511616

Claim:
A system for emitting electrons collected by a chassis of a spacecraft located in an environment in which one side of the chassis is impinged upon by ultraviolet (UV) photons and another side of the chassis is shielded from the UV photons, the system comprising: an electrically conductive surface disposed on the side of the chassis impinged upon by UV photons, the electrically conductive surface being electrically isolated from the chassis of the spacecraft; and a micro-fabricated field-emission array device having a gate, an array of emitters, a first terminal electrically connected to the gate, and a second terminal electrically connected to the array of emitters, the first terminal electrically coupling the gate to the electrically conductive surface on the side of the chassis being impinged upon by the UV photons, and the second terminal electrically coupling the array of emitters to a surface on the side of the chassis shielded from the UV photons, the array of emitters discharging electrons from the surface on the shielded side of the chassis when a voltage difference in excess of a threshold voltage develops between the gate and the array of emitters because of differential charging of the electrically conductive surface on the side of the chassis being impinged upon by the UV photons and the surface on the shielded side of the chassis.