Simulation aided design of a low cost ion mobility spectrometer based on printed circuit boards

Bohnhorst, Alexander; Kirk, Ansgar T.; Zimmermann, Stefan

doi:10.1007/s12127-016-0202-7

Cited by 31 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 14 publications

(12 reference statements)

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“…Some designs are based on low temperature cofired ceramic (LTCC) [8]. Other designs use stacked electrode-insulator-pairs [6,9] or printed circuit boards [10,11]. However, the key challenge of miniaturization is to maintain the analytical performance of the IMS, which strongly depends on the geometrical dimensions of the drift tube [10,12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Miniaturized high-performance drift tube ion mobility spectrometer

Ahrens

Hitzemann

Zimmermann

2019

Int. J. Ion Mobil. Spec.

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Developing powerful hand-held drift tube ion mobility spectrometers (IMS) requires small, lightweight drift tubes with high analytical performance. In this work, we present an easy-to-manufacture, miniaturized drift tube ion mobility spectrometer, which is manufactured from polyether ether ketone, stainless steel foils and printed circuit boards. It is possible to operate the drift tube IMS with a radioactive 3 H ionization source or a non-radioactive X-ray ionization source with 3 kVacceleration voltage. The drift tube design provides high resolving power of R p = 63 at a drift length of just 40 mm, 15 mm × 15 mm in cross-section (outer dimensions) and a drift voltage of 2.5 kV. The limits of detection for less than one second of averaging are 40 ppt v for dimethylmethylphosphonate and 30 ppt v for methyl salicylate. For demonstration, the miniaturized drift tube IMS is integrated into a stand-alone battery-powered mobile device, including a closed gas-loop, high performance driver electronics and wireless data transmission. In a proof-of-concept study, this device was tested in an international field evaluation exercise to detect the release of a volatile, hazardous substance inside a large entry hall.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Miniaturized high-performance drift tube ion mobility spectrometer

Ahrens

Hitzemann

Zimmermann

2019

Int. J. Ion Mobil. Spec.

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“…In order to measure the ion mobility, a small packet of ions is injected by an ion shutter into a drift tube with a constant electric field and the drift time required to reach the detector is measured. Drift tubes can be manufactured in a wide variety of sizes and from a wide variety of materials such as resistive glass tubes [59,60], low temperature co-fired ceramics (LTCC) [61], printed circuit boards (PCB) [62,63] or even 3D printing [64]. The expected drift time of an ion with ion mobility K through a drift tube of length L with the electric field E is given by eq.…”

Section: Drift Tube Imsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ultra-high-resolution ion mobility spectrometry—current instrumentation, limitations, and future developments

et al. 2019

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With recent advances in ionization sources and instrumentation, ion mobility spectrometers (IMS) have transformed from a detector for chemical warfare agents and explosives to a widely used tool in analytical and bioanalytical applications. This increasing measurement task complexity requires higher and higher analytical performance and especially ultra-high resolution. In this review, we will discuss the currently used ion mobility spectrometers able to reach such ultra-high resolution, defined here as a resolving power greater than 200. These instruments are drift tube IMS, travelling wave IMS, trapped IMS and field asymmetric or differential IMS. The basic operating principles and the resulting effects of experimental parameters on resolving power are explained and compared between the different instruments. This allows understanding the current limitations of resolving power and how ion mobility spectrometers may progress in the future.

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“…For comparison, the length of the drift region of the previous presented HiKE-IMS 51 operated at 20 mbar is 306 mm. The table of content graphic shows a photograph of the reaction region of the HiKE-IMS, which is entirely built from standard printed circuit boards similar to the work of Bohnhorst et al 53 .The default operating parameters are listed in Table 1. Before assembly, all parts are thoroughly cleaned in an ultrasonic bath and afterwards stored in a vacuum oven at 80 °C for 24 h to prevent any outgassing during operation as this can significantly alter the ion population 54 .…”

Section: = = •mentioning

confidence: 99%

High Kinetic Energy Ion Mobility Spectrometry (HiKE-IMS) at 40 mbar

Schlottmann

Kirk

Allers

et al. 2020

J. Am. Soc. Mass Spectrom.

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High Kinetic Energy Ion Mobility Spectrometers (HiKE-IMS) are usually operated at an absolute pressure of 20 mbar reaching high reduced electric field strengths of up to 125 Td for controlled reaction kinetics. This significantly increases the linear range and limits chemical cross sensitivities. Furthermore, HiKE-IMS enables the ionization of compounds normally not detectable in ambient pressure IMS, such as benzene, due to new reaction pathways and the inhibition of clustering reactions. In addition, HiKE-IMS allows the observation of additional orthogonal parameters related to an increased ion temperature such as fragmentation and field-dependent ion mobility, which may help to separate compounds that have similar ion mobility under low field conditions.Aiming for a hand-held HiKE-IMS to carry its benefits into field applications, reducing size and power consumption of the vacuum system is necessary. In this work, we present a novel HiKE-IMS design entirely manufactured from standard printed circuit boards (PCB) and experimentally investigate the analytical performance in dependence of the operating pressure between 20 mbar and 40 mbar. Hereby, the limit of detection (LoD) for benzene in purified, dry air (1.4 ppmV water) improved from 7 ppbV at 20 mbar down to 1.8 ppbV at 40 mbar. Furthermore, adding 0.9 ppmV toluene the signal of the benzene B + peak decreases by only 2 % at 40 mbar. Even in the presence of high relative humidity in the sample gas above 90 % or toluene concentrations of up to 20 ppmV, the LoD for benzene just increases to 9 ppbV at 40 mbar.

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Simulation aided design of a low cost ion mobility spectrometer based on printed circuit boards

Cited by 31 publications

References 14 publications

Miniaturized high-performance drift tube ion mobility spectrometer

Miniaturized high-performance drift tube ion mobility spectrometer

Ultra-high-resolution ion mobility spectrometry—current instrumentation, limitations, and future developments

High Kinetic Energy Ion Mobility Spectrometry (HiKE-IMS) at 40 mbar

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