| Title |
A Carbon Nanotube Field Emitter with a Triode Configuration for a Miniature Mass Spectrometer |
| Authors |
이유리(Lee, Yu-Ri) ; 이기정(Lee, Ki-Jung) ; Hong, Nguyen Tuan(Hong, Nguyen Tuan) ; 이순일(Lee, Soon-Il) ; 양상식(Yang, Sang-Sik) |
| DOI |
https://doi.org/10.5370/KIEE.2012.61.7.1001 |
| Keywords |
Micro mass spectrometer ; Electron emitter ; Carbon nanotube ; Triode ; Micromachining |
| Abstract |
This paper presents a carbon nanotube (CNT) triode-structure field emitter as an ion source in a micro time-of-flight mass spectrometer(TOF-MS). In the ion source by field emission, the electrons emitted from cathodes under an electric field accelerated to the anode and ionize gas molecules by impact before arriving the anode. The generated positive ions are to be accelerated to the ion collector. Whereas most of ions are drawn to the cathodes in diode field emitters, a grid in the triode field emitter prevents the ions from being drawn to the cathodes. The triode field emitter is fabricated by micromachining. The cathode is composed of six CNT cylinders. The total size of the fabricated device is 8.0×7.3×1.9mm^3. The anode and the grid current of the fabricated CNT field emitter were measured for various anode and grid voltages. When the anode and the grid voltages are 1000 V and 990 V, respectively, the emission current passing through the ionization region is 8.6 μA, which is a sufficient emission current for ionization and mass spectrometry. |