Micro Mass Spectrometer Using Triode Electron Emitters with a Planar Carbon-Nanoparticle Cathode as Ion Source
- Resource Type
- Conference
- Authors
- Cho, Jung Bin; Yoon, Hyeun Jung; Jung, Kwang Woo; Yang, Sang Sik; Koh, Ken Ha; Lee, Soonil
- Source
- 2007 2nd IEEE International Conference on Nano/Micro Engineered and Molecular Systems Nano/Micro Engineered and Molecular Systems, 2007. NEMS '07. 2nd IEEE International Conference on. :593-597 Jan, 2007
- Subject
- Components, Circuits, Devices and Systems
Bioengineering
Mass spectroscopy
Electron guns
Cathodes
Ion sources
Electrodes
Acceleration
Micromachining
Optical device fabrication
Lithography
Glass
Carbon nanoparticle
micro mass spectrometer
time-of-flight
triode electron emitter
- Language
Using micromachining techniques, we fabricated a miniature time-of-flight mass spectrometer (TOF-MS) which consisted of ion-source and ion-separator plates. The dimension of the assembled device was 11 mm × 11 mm × 1.1 mm. The key part of the ion source was a triode electron emitter with a planar carbon-nanoparticle (CNP) cathode. CNP was one of the best cathode materials to build triode electron emitters because of the smooth surface morphology of CNP films in addition to their excellent emission characteristics which allowed low turn-on gate voltage and stable operation. The operation of each plate was confirmed successfully through separate tests. In particular, we verified ion generation via electron bombardment for ambient air and acetone molecules.