A high voltage asymmetric waveform generator for FAIMS.

Area of Science:

• Analytical Chemistry
• Physical Chemistry

Background:

• High Field Asymmetric Waveform Ion Mobility Spectrometry (FAIMS) is increasingly used for ion separation before mass spectrometry.
• While FAIMS electrodes are simple to fabricate, the associated electronics for generating high-voltage, high-frequency asymmetric waveforms are complex.
• Existing FAIMS electronics setups can be costly and difficult to implement in standard laboratories.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a custom-built, cost-effective electronics system for FAIMS.
• To demonstrate the capability of this new system for ion separation and filtering.
• To facilitate the integration of FAIMS with mass spectrometry instrumentation.

Main Methods:

• Designed and constructed a novel electronics apparatus to generate high-magnitude asymmetric electric fields.
• The system operates at frequencies of several hundred kilohertz, delivering precise waveforms and voltages.
• Integrated the custom FAIMS electronics with an ion trap mass spectrometer.

Main Results:

• The custom electronics setup successfully generated the required high-voltage asymmetric waveforms.
• The system proved to be relatively simple and inexpensive to implement.
• Demonstrated the utility of FAIMS, interfaced via this system, as a gas-phase ion filter for mass spectrometry.

Conclusions:

• A custom, affordable FAIMS electronics system has been successfully developed.
• This apparatus simplifies the implementation of FAIMS as a pre-mass spectrometry ion filter.
• The presented system broadens accessibility to FAIMS technology for analytical laboratories.