CNT-Based MEMS/NEMS Gas Ionizers for Portable Mass Spectrometry Applications

Abstract

We report the fabrication and experimental characterization of a carbon nanotube (CNT)-based MEMS/NEMS electron impact gas ionizer with an integrated extractor gate for portable mass spectrometry. The ionizer achieves low-voltage ionization using sparse forests of plasma-enhanced chemical-vapordeposited CNTs as field emitters and a proximal extractor grid with apertures aligned to the CNT forests to facilitate electron transmission. The extractor gate is integrated to the ionizer using a high-voltage MEMS packaging technology based on Si springs defined by deep reactive ion etching. The ionizer also includes a high-aspect-ratio silicon structure (μfoam) that facilitates sparse CNT growth and also enables uniform current emission. The devices were tested as field emitters in high vacuum (10 −8 torr) and as electron impact ionizers using argon at pressures of up to 21 mtorr. The experimental data show that the MEMS extractor gate transmits up to 66% of the emitted current and that the ionizers are able to produce up to 0.139 mA of ion current with up to 19% ionization efficiency while consuming 0.39 W. [2009-0246] Index Terms-Carbon nanotubes (CNTs), deep reactive ion etching (DRIE), electron impact ionization, field emission, gas ionizer, portable mass spectrometry (MS), 3-D MEMS packaging. I. INTRODUCTION M ASS SPECTROMETERS are powerful analytical tools that are helpful to quantitatively determine the chemical composition of a sample. Unfortunately, conventional mass spectrometry (MS) hardware is bulky and power hungry, which limits the range of applications that the technology can satisfy. The development of gas chromatography and MS (GC/MS) systems that are small, light, mechanically and thermally robust, and low-powered would enable their portability and therefore would expand the applicability of MS techniques. Portable GC/MS systems, either as individual units or as part of massive networks, can be used in a wide range of in situ applications including geological survey, law enforcement, environ-Manuscript

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