Novel ion drift tube based on a composite material

In this project, we have developed a simple manufacturing process for ion mobility spectrometer drift tubes based on a composite material in order to reduce the manufacturing effort. This composite material consists of alternating layers of metal sheets and insulator material, which are connected to each other in a mechanically stable and gastight manner. Furthermore, this approach allows the production of multiple ion drift tubes in parallel in just a few steps from a single piece of material, thus further reducing the manufacturing costs and efforts per unit.

The photo shows a drift tube IMS made of such a composite material. With 38.1 mm drift length, only 15 mm × 15 mm cross-section and 57 mm in overall length (outer dimensions) it has high resolving power of R_p = 62 and detection limits in the ppt_v-range with averaging times of one second.