Towards 3D printed compact Quadrupole mass spectrometer with MEMS components

This article presents preliminary works on utilization of 3D printing and MEMS techniques to obtain compact Quadrupole mass spectrometer (3Dp QMS). Fabricated device consists of a glow discharge ion source, a quadrupole mass analyzer and a Faraday cup detector. Obtained mass spectra already show satisfactory resolution, it is possible to distinguish the components of the air mixture, while there is still prospect of enhancing it by optimizing the ionization conditions or the analysis itself. Design of the device as well as electronics necessary for the analysis are characterized by low complexity, thus there is still place for further miniaturization.