Monolithically 3-D Printed, Quadrupole Mass Filter for High-Precision, Compact, CubeSat Mass Spectrometry

Abstract

Mass spectrometry is the gold standard for quantitative chemical analysis. However, mainstream mass spectrometers are large, heavy, and power hungry, restricting their ability to be deployed into in-situ, portable, and hand-held scenarios, e.g., drones and CubeSats (measurements in the atmosphere are crucial for monitoring climate change). Miniaturization has been attained at the expense of great loss in performance, caused in part by fabricating non-ideal electrode shapes and having low relative assembly precision. Via additive manufacturing, it is possible to create complex objects, e.g., mass filters with better shaped and spatially arranged electrodes. We report the design, fabrication, and characterization of the first, monolithically 3Dprinted, hyperbolic, compact RF quadrupole mass filters. The devices were made using an advanced, multi-material extrusion printer. The devices are tested as RFonly collision cells for use in miniaturized triple quadrupole mass spectrometers and as quadrupole mass filters for miniaturized mass spectrometers (we detected argon at a resolution of 5 and 1-250 amu mass range). We also developed compact electronics to drive the quadrupoles that are compatible with the size, weight, and power constraints of deployable platforms, such as CubeSats (<3W, up to 400 𝑉𝑝𝑝 sinusoidal amplitude, 1-3MHz, >2000 voltage steps for 100:1 resolution). This work provides an opportunity for more precise, low-power, deployable, and compact mass spectrometry systems.