SBIR Phase I: Optimized Extraction and Projection Optics for Ion Point Sources

SBIR 第一阶段：优化离子点源的提取和投影光学器件

• 批准号: 2136792
• 负责人: Thomas Kelly
• 金额: $ 25.53万
• 依托单位: STEAM INSTRUMENTS, INC.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-09-15 至 2023-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2136792&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; Optimized; Extraction; Projection

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project seeks to demonstrate a technology advance in the field of imaging mass spectrometry. A successful project will enable: (1) markedly improved mass resolving power sufficient to separate key mass interferences that limit the technique, and (2) introduction of a new generation of position-sensitive ion detectors to dramatically improve data acquisition rates by 100 times and detection efficiency to 100%. These developments will create an opportunity to rethink the underlying architecture of commercial stigmatic-imaging time-of-flight mass spectrometry microscopes. With this technology, a new generation of instruments will be realized. The addressable market opportunity for these instruments is currently about $50 million per annum and is expected to grow with the new superior performance and with increasing need which grows more acute with time. Such improved instruments can beneficially impact major industries such as semiconductors ($450 billlon per year) and metals ($12 trillion per year). Improvements in the quality, quantity, and availability of atomic-scale information from imaging mass spectrometry instruments thus can have a large impact on technological progress. The advances sought in this project are the first steps toward new tools that will meet the demands of scientists and engineers for decades. The intellectual merit of this project is embodied in an experimental test of a new optical approach to control beam divergence from point sources of charged particles. By controlling beam divergence, ion imaging detectors can be optimally adapted to record images with superior properties. This will significantly advance fields of stigmatic-imaging mass spectrometry and ion-beam projection instrumentation. Extensive computer simulations have been conducted and used to aid design of prototype ion optics. The ability of these optics to control the ion beam divergence while projecting stigmatic ion images must be confirmed. Such ion images will be recorded over a wide range of operating conditions of the ion source and optics. A proof-of-concept experiment is proposed here to validate predictions of modeling. The quality of the projection will be assessed and compared with the simulations for validation of the models and further optimization aiming at development of a product prototype. This work will enable 1) long-sought-after imaging time-of-flight mass spectrometry measurements with large field of view and high mass resolving power for precise ion identification, and 2) implementation of a new generation of ion detectors that offer 100% detection efficiency and a hundred-fold increase in data acquisition rate.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

这个小型企业创新研究第一阶段项目旨在展示成像质谱学领域的技术进步。一个成功的项目将使：(1)显著提高质量分辨率，足以分离限制该技术的关键质量干扰，以及(2)引入新一代位置灵敏离子探测器，将数据采集速度大幅提高100倍，探测效率达到100%。这些发展将创造一个机会，重新思考商业污名成像飞行时间质谱学显微镜的基础架构。有了这项技术，新一代仪器将被实现。这些工具的潜在市场机会目前每年约为5,000万美元，预计将随着新的优越表现和日益增长的需求而增长，这种需求随着时间的推移而变得更加尖锐。这种改进的工具可以有益地影响半导体(每年4500亿美元)和金属(每年12万亿美元)等主要行业。因此，来自成像质谱仪的原子级信息在质量、数量和可用性方面的改进可以对技术进步产生重大影响。该项目寻求的进展是迈向新工具的第一步，这些工具将满足科学家和工程师数十年的需求。该项目的智能优势体现在对一种新的光学方法的实验测试中，该方法可以控制来自带电粒子点源的光束发散。通过控制光束发散，离子成像探测器可以最佳地适应记录具有优异性能的图像。这将大大推进色散成像质谱学和离子束投影仪器领域的发展。已经进行了大量的计算机模拟，并用于辅助原型离子光学的设计。必须确认这些光学元件在投射色散离子图像的同时控制离子束发散的能力。这样的离子图像将在离子源和光学器件的广泛操作条件下被记录。这里提出了一个概念验证实验来验证模型的预测。将对预测的质量进行评估，并与模拟进行比较，以验证模型并针对产品原型的开发进行进一步优化。这项工作将使1)大视场和高质量分辨率的大视场和高质量分辨率的成像飞行时间质谱学测量用于精确的离子识别，以及2)新一代离子探测器的实施，提供100%的探测效率和100倍的数据采集速率。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。