Micromachined Multi-Ion Sources Integrated Micro-Fluidic Channels

In this research, we develop micromachined multi-ion sources (multi-IS) integrated microfluidic channels. The multi-IS was consisted of an array of micro-emitters surrounded by microfluidic channels. A matrix of 10 x 10 micro-emitters in which each emitter was surrounded by four-segmented annular microfluidic channels of 10 μm in width were fabricated. The ion emission evaluation confirmed that the fabricated EMIM-BF₄ based IS was able to operate a wide range of applied voltage from 4.7 kV to 6 kV. The maximum etching yield of 17 atoms per ion was achieved. The matrix of etching dimples on the Si target proved the ion emission from multi-IS without IL droplet existence.