Radio Frequency Glow Discharge Mass Spectrometer
Summary
Domain Advance scientific instrument
Skills Mechanical, PC software, Electronics
Team Size 3
Duration 2 Years

Objective: Develop Radio Frequency Glow Discharge Mass spectrometer based on the optics of an organic high resolution mass spectrometer.

Challenges: There were plenty of challenges we encountered during the development. Listed below are the major ones.
  1. The instruments existing control system was entirely different and needed full replacement
  2. Driving a Magnet (coil) at high precision when source is powered by high power RF (100 W) is one of the most difficult EMI related problem to solve.
  3. The system was supposed to stay under vacuum 24/7 and 365 days a year.
  4. The precision required for electronics was in tens of uV levels
  5. Data acquisition involved high speed high precision analog as well as digital inputs

Following are the areas where I was primarily involved as part of the development.

Electronics:

  1. Vacuum control system with safety interlocks
  2. Source control unit in a Faraday Cage (8kV)
  3. Data Acquisition Unit
  4. PCB for Faraday and Ion counter collector boards.
  5. Adapter card for driving Legacy VME Bus

Software

  1. Data Acquisition
  2. Instrument control
  3. Data Analysis
  4. Advanced user interface for experiment configuration and analysis

Mechanical

  1. Cooling system
  2. Sample holder assembly with switchable input RF/DC