This application claims the benefit of Great Britain Patent Application No. GB1005551.5 filed on Apr. 1, 2010.
The present application relates to ion guides. The invention more particularly relates to a multipole ion guide that is microengineered and used in mass spectrometer systems as a means of confining the trajectories of ions as they transit an intermediate vacuum stage. Such an intermediate vacuum stage may typically be provided between an atmospheric pressure ion source (e.g. an electrospray ion source) and a mass analyser in high vacuum.
Atmospheric pressure ionisation techniques such as electrospray and chemical ionisation are used to generate ions for analysis by mass spectrometers. Ions created at atmospheric pressure are generally transferred to high vacuum for mass analysis using one or more stages of differential pumping. These intermediate stages are used to pump away most of the gas load. Ideally, as much of the ion current as possible is retained. Typically, this is achieved through the use of ion guides, which confine the trajectories of ions as they transit each stage.
In conventional mass spectrometer systems, which are based on components having dimensions of centimeters and larger, it is known to use various types of ion guide configurations. These include multipole configurations. Such multipole devices are typically formed using conventional machining techniques and materials. Multipole ion guides constructed using conventional techniques generally involve an arrangement in which the rods are drilled and tapped so that they may be held tightly against an outer ceramic support collar using retaining screws. Electrical connections are made via the retaining screws using wire loops that straddle alternate rods. However, as the field radius decreases, and/or the number of rods used to define the multipole increases, problems associated with such conventional techniques include the provision of a secure and accurate mounting arrangement with independent electrical connections.
These and other problems are addressed in accordance with the present teaching by providing an ion guide which can be fabricated in accordance with microengineering principles. Accordingly, a first embodiment of the application provides a microengineered mass spectrometer system comprising an ion guide chamber comprising a plurality of rods defining an ion guide, a first set of rods being supported on a first substrate and a second set of rods being supported on a second substrate, and an analyser chamber comprising a mass analyser, wherein the ion guide is operable for directing ions towards the analyser chamber and the supported rods are circumferentially arranged about an ion beam axis, as detailed in claim 1. Advantageous embodiments are provided in the dependent claims.
The present application will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:
The quantity of gas pumped through each vacuum chamber is equal to the product of the pressure and the pumping speed. In order to use pumps of a modest size throughout (the pumping speed is related to the physical size of the pump), it is desirable to pump the majority of the gas load at high pressure and thereby minimise the amount of gas that must be pumped at low pressure. Most of the gas flow through the first orifice 125 is pumped away via the first chamber 120 and second chamber 140, as a result of their relatively high operating pressures, and only a small fraction passes through the third orifice 150 and into the analysis chamber, where a low pressure is required for proper operation of the mass filter 165 and detector 170.
In order to transfer as much of the ion current as possible to the analysis chamber, the second chamber includes a multipole ion guide 145 which acts on the ions but has no effect on the unwanted neutral gas molecules. Such an ion guide is provided by a multipole configuration comprising a plurality of individual rods arranged circumferentially about an intended ion path, the rods collectively generating an electric field that confines the trajectories of the ions as they transit the second chamber. The number of rods employed in the multipole configuration determines the nomenclature used to define the configuration. For example, four rods define a quadrupole, six rods define a hexapole and eight rods define an octupole. The voltage applied to each rod is required to oscillate at radio frequency (rf), with the waveforms applied to adjacent rods having opposite phase. Quadrupole mass filters are operated with direct current (dc) components of equal magnitude but opposite polarity added to the out-of-phase rf waveforms. When the magnitude of the dc components is set appropriately, only ions of a particular mass are transmitted. However, the ion guide is operable without such dc components (rf only), and all ions with masses within a range defined by the rf voltage amplitude are transmitted.
It will be appreciated that at a first glance, a quadrupole ion guide seems to be somewhat structurally similar to a pre-filter, which is used to minimise the effects of fringing fields at the entrance to a quadrupole mass filter. However, a pre-filter must be placed in close proximity to the mass filtering quadrupole 165 without any intermediate aperture i.e. it does not transfer ions from one vacuum stage to another.
It will be understood that within the second chamber, if the pressure is high enough, collisions with neutral gas molecules cause the ions to lose energy, and their motion can be approximated as damped simple harmonic oscillations (an effect known as collisional focusing). This increases the transmitted ion current as the ions become concentrated along the central axis. It is known that this effect is maximised if the product of the pressure and the length of the ion guide lies between 6×10−2 and 15×10−2 Torr-cm. It follows that a short ion guide allows the use of higher operating pressures and consequently, smaller pumps.
In accordance with the present teaching, the multipole ion guide that provides confinement and focusing of the ions typically has critical dimensions similar to that of the microengineered quadrupole filter provided within the analysis chamber. As both the ion guide and the mass filter are of a small scale, they may be accommodated in vacuum chambers that are smaller than those used in conventional systems. In addition, the pumps may also be smaller, as the operating pressures tolerated by these components are higher than those used in conventional systems.
It is reasonable to consider a fixed field radius, r0, which might be determined, for example, by the diameter of the second orifice 130 in
Although the electric field within the multipole ion guide oscillates rapidly in response to the rf waveforms applied to the rods, the ions move as if they are trapped within a potential well. The trapping pseudopotentials can be described using
where 2n is the number of poles, r is the radial distance from the centre of the field, r0 is the inscribed radius, V0 is the rf amplitude, z is the charge, Ω is the rf frequency, and m is the mass of the ion [D. Gerlich, J. Anal. At. Spectrom. 2004, 19, 581-90]. The required pseudopotential well depth is dictated by the need to confine the radial motion of the ions, and should be at least equal to the maximum radial energy. It follows that miniaturisation, which leads to a reduction in the inscribed radius, results in a reduction in the required rf amplitude.
In summary, advantages of employing a miniature multipole ion guide include:
The supports are desirably fabricated from silicon bonded to a glass substrate 541, a support for a first rod being electrically isolated from a support for a second adjacent rod. Each of the supports may differ geometrically from others of the supports so as to allow for lateral and vertical displacements of the rods supported on the same substrate, relative to one another. Desirably, however, a support for one rod is a mirror image of a support for another rod. While the rods will be parallel with one another and also with an ion beam axis of the device, each of the rods may differ from others of the rods in its spacing relative to the supporting substrate. When mounting the rods, the first and second dies are separated to allow the location of the rods on their respective supports. On effecting a securing of the rods, the two dies are brought together and located relative to one another to form the desired ultimate configuration. Desirably, the two supporting substrates are identical, so that following assembly, the relative spacings of the rods mounted on the lower substrate are the same as the relative spacings of the rods mounted on the upper substrate. The mutual spacing of the first and second dies is desirably effected using precision spacers 550.
As shown in
It will be appreciated that to provide the necessary circumferential location of the plurality of rods about the ion beam axis that desirably the heights of the individually mounted rods will be staggered. In an octupole configuration such as that shown, each set of rods comprises two rod pairings. The individual rod parings comprise two rods that are separately mounted on identical supports. A first pairing comprises two rods each provided in their own trench support. A second pairing comprises two rods each provided on a step support. The heights of the step supports are greater than that of the trench supports such that on forming the ion guide construct, those rods seated on the steps are elevated relative to those within the trenches. In this way the step rods are closer to the opposing substrate than the trench rods.
An exemplary precision spacer that maintains the correct separation and registry between the two dies is shown in
In general, a component in an assembly has three orthogonal linear and three orthogonal rotational degrees of freedom relative to a second component. It is the purpose of a coupling to constrain these degrees of freedom. In mechanics, a coupling is described as kinematic if exactly six point contacts are used to constrain motion associated with the six degrees of freedom. These point contacts are typically defined by spheres or spherical surfaces in contact with either flat plates or v-grooves. A complete kinematic mount requires that the point contacts are positioned such that each of the orthogonal degrees of freedom is fully constrained. If there are any additional point contacts, they are redundant, and the mount is not accurately described as being kinematic. However, the terms kinematic and quasi-kinematic are often used to describe mounts that are somewhat over-constrained, particularly those incorporating one or more line contacts. Line contacts are generally defined by arcuate or non-planar surfaces, such as those provided by circular rods, in contact with planar surfaces, such as those provided by flat plates or v-grooves. Alternatively, an annular line contact is defined by a sphere in contact with a cone or the surfaces that define an aperture such as a circular aperture.
A dowel pin inserted into a drilled hole is a common example of a coupling that is not described as kinematic or quasi-kinematic. This type of coupling is usually referred to as an interference fit. A certain amount of play or slop must be incorporated to allow the dowel pin to be inserted freely into the hole during assembly. There will be multiple contact points between the surface of the pin and the side wall of the mating hole, which will be determined by machining inaccuracies. Hence, the final geometry represents an average of all these ill-defined contacts, which will differ between nominally identical assemblies.
Desirably, the precision spacers defining the mutual separation of the two dies in
Each of the rods requires an electrical connection. This is conveniently achieved using integrated conductive tracks as indicated in
In this hexapole configuration, as there are fewer rods to be accommodated on each die than were required for the octupole configuration, the individual mounts do not require axial separation along the longitudinal axis of the rods. Each of the three rods are located on a trench support, two 1030a, 1030b being elevated relative to the third 1030c which is provided therebetween.
It will be appreciated that the arrangement of
An alternative mounting arrangement for provision of a hexapole configuration is shown in
It will be understood that the mounting arrangements described herein are exemplary of the type of configurations that could be employed in fabrication of a microengineered ion guide. It will also be apparent to the person of skill in the art that other arrangements of 10, 12, 14, etc. rods can be accommodated by simple extension of the above designs. Moreover, odd numbers of rods can be accommodated using different upper and lower die.
While the specifics of the mass spectrometer have not been described herein, a miniature instrument such as that described herein may be advantageously manufactured using microengineered instruments such as those described in one or more of the following co-assigned US applications: U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 12/380,002, 12/220,321, 12/284,778, 12/001,796, 11/810,052, 11/711,142 the contents of which are incorporated herein by way of reference. As has been exemplified above with reference to silicon etching techniques, within the context of the present invention, the term microengineered or microengineering or micro-fabricated or microfabrication is intended to define the fabrication of three dimensional structures and devices with dimensions in the order of millimeters or sub-millimeter scale.
Where done at the micrometer scale, it combines the technologies of microelectronics and micromachining. Microelectronics allows the fabrication of integrated circuits from silicon wafers whereas micromachining is the production of three-dimensional structures, primarily from silicon wafers. This may be achieved by removal of material from the wafer, or addition of material on or in the wafer. The attractions of microengineering may be summarised as batch fabrication of devices leading to reduced production costs, miniaturisation resulting in materials savings, miniaturisation resulting in faster response times and reduced device invasiveness. It will be appreciated that within this context the term “die” as used herein may be considered analogous to the term as used in the integrated circuit environment as being a small block of semiconducting material, on which a given functional circuit is fabricated. In the context of integrated circuits fabrication, large batches of individual circuits are fabricated on a single wafer of a semiconducting material through processes such as photolithography. The wafer is then diced into many pieces, each containing one copy of the circuit. Each of these pieces is called a die. Within the present context such a definition is also useful but it is not intended to limit the term to any one particular material or construct in that different materials could be used as supporting structures for rods of the present teaching without departing from the scope herein defined. For this reason the reference to “die” herein is exemplary of a substrate that may be used for supporting and/or mounting the rods and alternative substrates not formed from semiconducting materials may also be considered useful within the present context. The substrates are substantially planar having a major surface. The rods once supported on their respective substrates are configured so as to extend in a plane substantially parallel with the substrate major surface.
Wide varieties of techniques exist for the microengineering of wafers, and will be well known to the person skilled in the art. The techniques may be divided into those related to the removal of material and those pertaining to the deposition or addition of material to the wafer. Examples of the former include:
Whereas examples of the latter include:
While exemplary arrangements have been described herein to assist in an understanding of the present teaching it will be understood that modifications can be made without departing from the spirit and or scope of the present teaching. To that end it will be understood that the present teaching should be construed as limited only insofar as is deemed necessary in the light of the claims that follow.
Furthermore, the words comprises/comprising when used in this specification are to specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps or components but does not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, components or groups thereof.
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