Design of a Compact Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometer for Space Application

Abstract

A miniature reflectron time-of-flight mass spectrometer (TOF MS) with orthogonal extraction coupled with electron impact (EI) ionization source can be used to perform in situ gas composition analysis in a planetary environment. However, performances such as the mass resolution, sensitivity, limit of detection, mass range, and mass accuracy are often decreased because of miniaturization. Herein, a compact instrument for space applications has been developed, and its performance has been evaluated. The mass of the TOF MS is 13.4 kg, with dimensions of 300 mm × 200 mm × 200 mm, and the power consumption is 25 W. In this paper, the design of the ion source, mass analyzer, and detector is discussed in detail. The upper limit of the mass range is greater than 500 amu, and the best resolving power obtained so far on the miniature TOF MS is around 405 at full width half maximum (FWHM); other performance indexes of the instrument are also determined, where the worst case for mass stability is 0.49%, together with a mass accuracy of 0.12% and a sensitivity of 0.6 mV/ppm.