Modularized assembled ion transmission device

Abstract

The invention belongs to the technical field of mass spectrum and ion mobility spectrum analysis, and particularly relates to a modular assembly type ion transmission device. Main ion transmission assemblies of the device are all composed of modularized printed circuit boards. The single body is a rectangular cube formed by horizontally assembling a single printed circuit board, the single printed circuit board is a basic circuit board and is a hollow cuboid, a cavity between the single printed circuit board and the basic circuit board is an ion transmission channel, and a plurality of groups of radio frequency and direct current electrodes are drawn on the inner side of the rectangle and used for forming a pseudo potential field to guide the advancing direction of ions. Meanwhile, gate electrodes are arranged at the two ends and are used for blocking an ion path or guiding ions to a channel in a specified direction; through multiplexing of the transmission module, arbitrary derivative assembly of the ion transmission channel in the up-down, left-right, front-back six directions can be realized, ions can be transmitted in any channel direction, the number of parts is small, the manufacturing cost is low, and installation and maintenance are simple.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The invention relates to the technical field of mass spectrometry and ion mobility spectrometry, and in particular to a modular assembled ion transmission device. Background Art

[0002] The combination of mass spectrometry and ion mobility spectrometry has greatly improved its resolution and application range in life sciences. Mass spectrometry relies on the ratio of the amount of charge carried by ions and their mass, i.e., the mass-to-charge ratio, to separate ions, while ion mobility spectrometry relies on the difference in collision cross-sections to separate ions. The two have different separation principles, and after being combined, they can separate a large number of isomers that are commonly found in living organisms.

[0003] Since the working gas pressure requirements of mass spectrometry and ion mobility spectrometry are different, the former is often -7 The first one works in an environment below Pa, while the latter generally works between 200-1000Pa. The widely used technologies such as electrospray ionization and laser ionization usually work under atmospheric pressure. The connection between the three will produce a drop from high pressure to low pressure, which will cause a large number of ions to be lost with the natural expansion and diffusion of the gas, resulting in lower signal intensity, sensitivity and separation ability. The ion transmission device can make good use of the electric field generated by itself to constrain the ions, prevent their disorderly diffusion with the airflow, and guide the ions to move in the specified direction. This greatly reduces the loss of ions and solves the problem of ion transfer under different air pressures.

[0004] However, the current ion transmission devices are often designed specifically for different modules, that is, the transmission device is designed according to the needs for a certain type or set of cavities. When facing problems such as ion flow steering, it also relies on the advance design of transmission channels. Once the design and assembly are completed, its subsequent scalability and variability are greatly limited. When facing new ion steering or the need to open up new ion transmission channels, a complete set of replacement ion transmission modules is often required. Summary of the invention

[0005] In view of the problems existing in the above-mentioned prior art, the purpose of the present invention is to provide a modular and expandable ion transmission device for mass spectrometry and ion mobility spectrometry. The main ion transmission component of the device is composed of a modular printed circuit board, which can realize arbitrary derivative assembly of the six directions of the ion transmission channel, such as up, down, left, right, front and back, through modular multiplexing, and enable ions to be transmitted along any channel direction. It uses fewer parts, has low manufacturing cost, and is simple to install and maintain.

[0006] The technical solution of the present invention is specifically described as follows.

[0007] The present invention provides a modular assembled ion transmission device, wherein the monomer is a rectangular cube assembled by flat-packing a single printed circuit board, wherein the single printed circuit board is one or more of a basic circuit board, a first derivative circuit board or a second derivative circuit board, and the single printed circuit board is a hollow cuboid, wherein the hollow space is an ion transmission channel, and multiple groups of radio frequency and direct current electrodes are drawn on the inner side of the rectangle to form a pseudopotential field to guide the ion forward direction, and gate electrodes are arranged at both ends to block the ion passage or guide the ions to a channel in a specified direction;

[0008] A modular assembled ion transmission device is formed based on the assembly of single units to extend the ion transmission distance or change the ion transmission direction; wherein: the first derivative circuit board and the second derivative circuit board are different from the basic circuit board in that they are relatively shorter at the ion turning direction end compared to the basic circuit board to reserve an ion turning port.

[0009] In the present invention, the ion transmission distance is extended by connecting different monomers end to end.

[0010] In the present invention, the monomer includes one or more first derivative circuit boards and / or second derivative circuit boards as replacements to achieve a change in the direction of ion transmission.

[0011] In the present invention, on the basis of the basic circuit board, the first derived circuit board or the second derived circuit board is obtained by reducing the number of gate electrodes at one end.

[0012] In the present invention, the electrode array drawn on the single printed circuit board is concentrated on the same surface of the circuit board. When assembling, the electrode surfaces with electrodes of four circuit boards are assembled facing each other to form a single ion transmission channel.

[0013] In the present invention, the electrode array drawn on the single printed circuit board includes 6-10 traveling wave electrode groups as a group, and there are several groups of traveling wave electrode groups. After the traveling wave electrode groups are input with a periodically changing voltage, an electric potential field is formed to guide the ions to travel.

[0014] In the present invention, the printed circuit board is a hard substrate circuit board, which is selected from any one of FR-4, Rogers or Teflon; the electrode is drawn on the circuit board by a pad spraying process, and the pad spraying process is selected from any one of immersion gold, tin plating or bare copper.

[0015] In the present invention, both ends of the circuit board are provided with a slot and a tooth structure for fixing and installing the circuit boards to each other; when in use, the circuit boards are fixed to each other through the tooth and slot to complete the installation.

[0016] Compared with the prior art, the present invention has the following beneficial effects:

[0017] Compared with the traditional ion transmission device, which cannot achieve additional distance expansion and new ion transmission direction after construction, the present invention can achieve the functions of replacing, extending, and expanding new directions of ion transmission channels at a lower cost by simply reusing, replacing, and splicing the same modular circuit board. At the same time, it has the advantages of fewer parts required, simple installation, easy maintenance, and low repair and replacement costs.

[0018] Compared with the traditional ion transfer tube design, the device of the present invention has a greatly reduced number of components. The ion transmission function can be realized by splicing and reusing the same circuit board. The components can be interchangeable to realize a modular ion transmission device. The device is easy to disassemble and assemble, convenient to maintain, and has a low replacement cost. It has a small space requirement and can be changed to different lengths according to actual needs. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0019] Figure 1 Schematic diagram of electrodes of a single-chip circuit board according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0020] Figure 2 Schematic diagram of a first derivative circuit board according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0021] Figure 3 Schematic diagram of a second derivative circuit board according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0022] Figure 4 This is a single tube assembly diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.

[0023] Figure 5 It is a schematic diagram of multiplex transmission assembly according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0024] Figure 6 This is an assembly diagram of a steering-derived single tube according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0025] Figure 7 Schematic diagram of a T-type branch transmission device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0026] The reference numerals are:

[0027] 1-gate electrode, 2-traveling wave electrode, 3-tooth, 4-slot, 5-basic circuit board, 6-first derivative circuit board, 7-second derivative circuit board. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0028] The present invention will be further described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and embodiments.

[0029] Example 1

[0030] In an embodiment, a single-tube ion transmission device for mass spectrometry ion mobility spectrometry is provided, such as Figure 4As shown, it consists of four printed circuit boards, which are made of Rogers board material, and other hard brushed circuit board materials can also be used. Multiple groups of electrode arrays are drawn on a single circuit board, such as a traveling wave electrode group of eight, which is used to apply different electrical signals to form an electric field to realize the transmission of ions and control the steering of ions. Gate electrodes are set at the left and right ends of the circuit board, and the gate electrodes at the left and right ends can control the on and off of the ion channel after applying a DC voltage. The electrode array drawn on the single circuit board is concentrated on the same side of the circuit board. When the electrode is drawn on the printed circuit board, the pad spraying process is adopted, and specific processes such as bare copper, immersion gold, and tin spraying can be used.

[0031] When the device is used, it can be loaded at various vacuum connections or other places where ions need to be transmitted, and is used to receive the ions to be separated transmitted by the previous system. When in use, the electrode surfaces with electrodes, that is, the working surfaces, of the four circuit boards are assembled relative to each other. Card slots 4 and card teeth 3 structures are designed at both ends of the circuit board for mutual fixation and installation between the circuit boards. When in use, the circuit boards are fixed to each other through the card teeth 3 and the card slots 4 to complete the installation; after the mechanical fixation is completed, the electrodes on the four circuit boards are connected to different power supplies according to their types, that is, a traveling wave voltage is applied to the traveling wave electrode group, and a DC voltage is applied to the gate circuit of the same group. Such a single-tube ion transmission device can realize the ion transmission function.

[0032] Example 2

[0033] In the embodiment, a multi-tube ion transmission device for mass spectrometry ion mobility spectrometry is provided based on a single-tube ion transmission device. The multi-tube ion transmission device or the multi-tube ion transmission device that needs to extend and adjust the ion transmission direction is extended from the single-tube ion transmission device.

[0034] The overall ion transmission module is composed of a single circuit board. The single circuit board has a main shape for straight-line assembly and two slightly modified derivative shapes for branching and turning pipeline installation. At the same time, several groups of transmission channels can be assembled together to form multiple groups of channels according to different needs to achieve purposes such as extending the transmission distance and changing the direction of ion transmission.

[0035] Specifically, the distance of the ion transmission channel can be extended by connecting the same single-tube structure end to end. Two derivative circuit boards are used on the basis of the basic circuit board: a first derivative circuit board 6 and a second derivative circuit board 7, which are used to build a transmission channel that changes the direction of ion travel. The difference between it and the basic circuit board is that it is shorter than the left or right end of the standard circuit board to reserve the ion turning port. If the direction of ion transmission needs to be changed, the circuit board on the turning side is replaced with a derivative circuit board so that the tail end distance of the single-tube outlet ion turning side is shorter than the non-turning side.

[0036] In the present invention, after the circuit boards are fixed to each other, the ion transmission direction can still be adjusted by disassembling and replacing the circuit boards, thereby increasing the ion transmission distance.

[0037] Figure 5 An ion transmission channel that can adjust the movement of ions in four directions is demonstrated. The required single tubes are first spliced ​​in the manner of Example 1. However, the difference is that because the ions need to turn and adjust the direction, the basic circuit board 5 corresponding to the required turning direction is replaced with the first derivative circuit board 6 or the second derivative circuit board 7. The specific replacement selection is determined according to the required turning direction of the ions, that is, the circuit board on the same side of the ion turning direction is replaced with a derivative circuit board that is slightly shorter at the turning end. Assuming that multiple identical ion turning channels are required at the same time, the turning side circuit board can be replaced with the corresponding derivative board by the same logic.

[0038] Figure 6 This is an assembly diagram of a steering-derived single tube according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0039] Figure 7 Schematic diagram of a T-type branch transmission device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0040] The above describes the specific embodiments of the present invention. It should be understood that the present invention is not limited to the above specific embodiments, and those skilled in the art can make various changes or modifications within the scope of the claims, which does not affect the essence of the present invention. In the absence of conflict, the embodiments of the present application and the features in the embodiments can be combined with each other arbitrarily.

Claims

1. A modular assembled ion transmission device, characterized in that: The monomer is a rectangular cube assembled by flat-packing a single printed circuit board, wherein the single printed circuit board is one or more of a basic circuit board, a first derivative circuit board or a second derivative circuit board, and the single printed circuit board is a hollow cuboid, wherein the hollow space is an ion transmission channel, and multiple groups of radio frequency and direct current electrodes are drawn on the inner side of the rectangle to form a pseudopotential field to guide the ion forward direction, and gate electrodes are arranged at both ends to block the ion passage or guide the ions to a channel in a specified direction; A modular assembled ion transmission device is formed based on the assembly of single units to extend the ion transmission distance or change the ion transmission direction; wherein: the first derivative circuit board and the second derivative circuit board are different from the basic circuit board in that they are relatively shorter at the ion turning direction end compared to the basic circuit board to reserve an ion turning port.

2. The modular assembled ion transmission device according to claim 1, characterized in that: By connecting different monomers end to end, the ion transmission distance can be extended.

3. The modular assembled ion transmission device according to claim 1, characterized in that: The monomer includes one or more first derivative circuit boards and / or second derivative circuit boards as replacements to achieve a change in the direction of ion transmission.

4. The modular assembled ion transmission device according to claim 1, characterized in that: On the basis of the basic circuit board, the first derivative circuit board or the second derivative circuit board is obtained by reducing the number of gate electrodes at one end.

5. The modular assembled ion transmission device according to claim 1, characterized in that: The electrode array drawn on a single printed circuit board is concentrated on the same side of the circuit board. When assembling, the electrode surfaces with electrodes of four circuit boards are assembled facing each other to form a single ion transmission channel.

6. The modular assembled ion transmission device according to claim 5, characterized in that: The electrode array drawn on the single printed circuit board includes 6-10 traveling wave electrode groups as a group. There are several groups of traveling wave electrode groups. After the traveling wave electrode groups are input with a periodically changing voltage, an electric potential field is formed to guide the movement of ions.

7. The modular assembled ion transmission device according to claim 1, characterized in that: The printed circuit board is a hard substrate circuit board, which is selected from any one of FR-4, Rogers or Teflon; the electrodes are drawn on the circuit board through a pad spraying process, and the pad spraying process is selected from any one of immersion gold, tin plating or bare copper.

8. The modular assembled ion transmission device according to claim 1, characterized in that: Both ends of the circuit board are provided with a card slot and a card tooth structure, which are used for fixing and installing the circuit boards to each other; when in use, the circuit boards are fixed to each other through the card teeth and card slots to complete the installation.

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