Simple fabrication of micro time-of-flight mass spectrometer using a carbon nanotube ionizer

Abstract

This paper demonstrates a time-of-flight mass spectrometer (TOFMS) fabricated using simple micro electromechanical system technologies. It consists of two components: a triode-type field emitter for electron-impact ionization and ion separator with a repeller, an acceleration electrode, and a flight tube. As a cold-cathode, the field emitter with carbon nanotube is a promising electron source and offers several advantages over conventional thermionic electron sources, such as compact size, low power consumption because of the absence of heating elements, excellent durability, and high electron emission density. Micromachined TOFMS successfully detects signals of Ar and CH3I. This is practically proved with preliminary experiments on ionization and mass spectrum tests with Ar and CH3I, ions, including finite element modeling and theoretical analysis.