TILE
Accion Systems
TILE (Tiled Ionic Liquid Electrospray) is Accion Systems' modular ion electrospray propulsion system for small satellites, providing efficient, precise thrust using a non-toxic ionic liquid propellant.
Technical specifications
- Technology
- Tiled Ionic Liquid Electrospray (TILE)
- Propellant
- Inert, non-explosive, non-toxic ionic liquid salt
- TILE 500 - Thrust
- 150-300 microNewtons at 9 W
- TILE 500 - Specific Impulse
- 1500 s
- TILE 3 - Max Axial Thrust
- 0.45 mN
- TILE 3 - Specific Impulse
- 1650 s
- TILE 3 - Wet Mass
- 1.25 kg
- TILE 3 - Volume
- 1U
- Flight heritage
- First flew on Irvine01 CubeSat (Rocket Lab Electron, Nov 2018); next-gen TILE demonstrated on NanoAvionics D2/Atlacom-1 satellite (2022), raising orbit and correcting drag; contracted for Xplore XLEO and SpaceX rideshare missions
About
TILE is Accion Systems’ flagship electric propulsion product line, built around Tiled Ionic Liquid Electrospray technology. Unlike conventional gridded ion or Hall-effect thrusters, TILE extracts thrust-producing ions directly from an inert, non-explosive, non-toxic ionic liquid salt propellant stored in a low-pressure reservoir, eliminating the need for large gas-phase ionization chambers, pressurized propellant tanks, and external cathodes. This allows the thruster chips to be mass-produced using commercial manufacturing processes and tiled together in arrays to multiply thrust or provide redundancy. The product line spans multiple form factors, including TILE 500 (1/3U), TILE 2 (CubeSat-class), and TILE 3 (1U), targeting small satellite operators, constellation builders, and government/defense customers needing station-keeping, orbit-raising, drag compensation, deorbit, and attitude control capability. TILE has flown in space starting with the Irvine01 student CubeSat launched on a Rocket Lab Electron in November 2018, and Accion’s next-generation TILE thrusters were later demonstrated on NanoAvionics’ D2/Atlacom-1 satellite in 2022, successfully raising the satellite’s orbit and correcting for atmospheric drag.
Documentation
No public datasheet yet — request the datasheet / ICD from the supplier.