Circular Mass Spectrometer for High Speed Gas Analysis

In Phase I it was shown that a combination of a circular cycloidal mass spectrometer with a new type of a linear cycloidal for the light gases allows the simultaneous monitoring of the five constituents H2, He, N2, O2, and Ar. A laminar/molecular standard inlet is supported by a membrane inlet, which is particularly selective for helium and hydrogen. Thus the low ionization probability of these gases is compensated by enrichment to achieve the required detection limits without using an electron multiplier. The high vacuum is sustained by a small 2 l/s ion getter pump. To increase the time of operation for the ion pump a non-evaporable getter pump will capture most of the nitrogen and oxygen load from air by this getter material. The software developed provides spectra at the site (graphics display) and transmission of data via an RS 232/485 interface.