Chip-scale quadrupole mass filters for a Micro-Gas Analyzer

Mass spectrometers are powerful analytical instruments that serve as the gold standard for chemical analysis. This tool has numerous applications ranging from national security, industrial processing, environmental monitoring, space exploration, and healthcare to name a few. These systems are typically large, heavy, power-hungry, and expensive, constraining its usage to a laboratory setting. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in utilizing mass spectrometers outside the lab. Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology holds the promise of making devices smaller, faster, better, and cheaper. The Micro-Gas Analyzer (MGA) project attempts to leverage MEMS capabilities to create a low-cost, high-performance, portable mass spectrometer. Batch-fabrication of various components for the MGA has been demonstrated to date, but the mass filter component still has room for exploration. Chip-scale quadrupole mass filters achieved entirely through wafer-scale processing have been designed, fabricated, and characterized. The device integrates the quadrupole electrodes, ion optics, and housing into a single monolithic block, eliminating the electrode-to-housing misalignments inherent in other quadrupoles. To achieve this integration, unconventional square electrode geometry was utilized. This concept formed the basis of the micro-square electrode quadrupole mass filter (MuSE-QMF). The MuSE-QMF demonstrated mass filtering with a maximum mass range of 650 amu and a minimum peak-width of 0.5 amu at mass 40, corresponding to a resolution of 80.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2009

Author dc:creator

• Cheung, Kerry

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Akintunde I. Akinwande.

• Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/52777

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/52777