The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has developed a novel nanometer-thick "Soft Ionization Membrane" (SIM) which is capable of ionizing nearly 100% of the gases that pass through it. Both sides of the membrane are coated with a metallic conducting film. A modest potential of less than 10 Volts across the membrane produces an electric field in excess of 107 V/cm over a region that is smaller than the mean free path of gas molecules which ionizes the neutral molecules that passing through. Because the region of high electric field is smaller than the mean free path of gas molecules, there are virtually no high energy collisions and the system does not suffer from the fatal problem of avalanche breakdown. The soft ionization mechanism does not fracture the medium or cause any secondary ionization. Thus, a truly new ionization technique is enabled by a simple nanoscale micromachined device. The SIM is tiny, rugged and well suited for a wide variety of applications ranging from space micropropulsion systems to miniature analytical separation devices. In this paper we focus our attention on ion mobility spectrometers (IMSs) as a potential candidate to be incorporated with SIM.


    Access

    Access via TIB

    Check availability in my library

    Order at Subito €


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    A nanoscale soft-ionization membrane: a novel ionizer for ion mobility spectrometers for space applications


    Contributors:
    Hartley, F.T. (author) / Kanik, I. (author)


    Publication date :

    2002


    Size :

    7 Seiten, 13 Quellen




    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    Print


    Language :

    English





    IONIZER

    European Patent Office | 2022

    Free access

    IONIZER

    KO JAE WOO / LEE JONG MIN / JANG YONG WOOK | European Patent Office | 2019

    Free access

    Ionizer for vehicle

    European Patent Office | 2018

    Free access

    Atmospheric negative ionizer

    DICARLO MARK | European Patent Office | 2019

    Free access