AbstractThe scaling design of Hall effect thrusters is based on similarity criteria. Up to now, few of the similarity criteria proposed concern about the inside physical processes of the thruster except Melikov‐Morozov similarity criterion which embodies the ionization of propellant. As many other significant processes, such as electron conduction, ion acceleration and energy exchange, are out of consideration, it is far from enough to direct the thruster design appropriately at present. Therefore, in this paper, we have deduced out many new similarity criteria by analyzing the neutral continuity equation, the ion/electron momentum equations and the electron energy equation with the equation analysis method. By further comparing the magnitudes of source terms of those equations, we obtain certain similarity criteria which are primary and should be guaranteed for modeling design of thrusters. These dominant similarity criteria are finally verified in experiments (© 2009 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)