PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 15901763
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-02
Publication Date: 2018-08
Patent Classification: ["315", "111410"]

Abstract:
A miniature Hall current plasma source apparatus having magnetic shielding of the walls from ionized plasma, an integrated discharge channel and gas distributor, an instant-start hollow cathode mounted to the plasma source, and an externally mounted keeper, is described. The apparatus offers advantages over existing other Hall current plasma sources having similar power levels, including: lower mass, longer lifetime, lower part count including fewer power supplies, and the ability to be continuously adjustable to lower average power levels using pulsed operation and adjustment of the pulse duty cycle. The Hall current plasma source can provide propulsion for small spacecraft that either do not have sufficient power to accommodate a propulsion system or do not have available volume to incorporate the larger propulsion systems currently available. The present low-power Hall current plasma source can be used to provide energetic ions to assist the deposition of thin films in plasma processing applications.

Claim (Index 15):
A Hall current plasma source, comprising:\n a cylindrical magnetizable core having an outer surface and a first axis; a conducting wire coil wound around the outer surface of said cylindrical magnetizable core; a first cylindrical magnetic screen having a second axis collinear with the first axis enclosing said conducting wire coil, said first cylindrical magnetic screen having an outer diameter; a second cylindrical magnetic screen having a third axis collinear with the first axis, and an inner diameter which is larger than the outer diameter of said first cylindrical magnetic screen, forming an annular region therebetween; at least one cylindrical anode band disposed in the annular region, and in series electrical connection with said conducting wire coil; a keeper; a solenoid operated gas valve; a single electrical power supply having a positive terminal and a negative terminal; an electrical switch in series electrical connection with said conducting wire coil not in series electrical connection with said at least one cylindrical anode band, said keeper through a resistive element, said solenoid of said gas valve, and in series electrical connection with the positive terminal of said single electrical power supply; a cathode in series electrical communication with the negative terminal of said single electrical power supply; and a capacitor in parallel electrical connection with the single electrical power supply, an impedance element electrically coupled between a first terminal of the capacitor and the positive terminal of the single electrical power supply, wherein the first terminal of the capacitor is electrically coupled to the electrical switch and the positive terminal of the single electrical power supply is electrically coupled through the impedance element to the electrical switch.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 50.0
- Percentile: 88.0
- Lexical Diversity: 1.64646
- Patent Class: 315.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['15424385', '14263970', '12202252', '15091433', '13768788']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.6837583552504137
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.5838479284554077
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.6737673125709132
- Mean Citation Score: 263.185926
- Max Citation Score: 480.3551
- Similarity Product: 415.9543884725094

Labels:
- Claim Label 101: 1
- Claim Label 102: 1
- Claim Label 103: 1
- Claim Label 112: 1
- Combined Label: 1
- Label 101 Adjusted: 1

Dataset: test