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Comparison Of Classical And Charge Storage Methods For Determining Conductivity Of Thin Film Insulators, Prasanna Swaminathan, A. R. Frederickson, John R. Dennison, Alec Sim, J. Brunson, Eric Crapo

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Conductivity of insulating materials is a key parameter to determine how accumulated charge will distribute across the spacecraft and how rapidly charge imbalance will dissipate. Classical ASTM and IEC methods to measure thin film insulator conductivity apply a constant voltage to two electrodes around the sample and measure the resulting current for tens of minutes. However, conductivity is more appropriately measured for spacecraft charging applications as the "decay" of charge deposited on the surface of an insulator. Charge decay methods expose one side of the insulator in vacuum to sequences of charged particles, light, and plasma, with a metal electrode …