Inspecting the ILIS1 after the most recent test from a few days ago (test recap can be found in this post HERE), my observations during the test were confirmed, with some great news! No liquid creep failure at all this time, only liquid bridging between the emitter/extractor. The shield electrode worked! One major failure mode mitigated!
Despite this being the highest output test yet by a factor of 10, this was the first higher emission test I ran where I didn’t experience liquid creep failure. This confirms the use of the shield electrode and modified housing design for the next iterations moving forward.
In terms of liquid bridging, this can be resolved by better optimizing the emitter and extractor geometries, running at reduced voltage, and potentially further reducing fuel flow rates using the next grade up in finer pore sizes for the emitter and reservoir.