Method and apparatus for plasma generation

Abstract

An RF-driven plasma source, including a pair of spaced-apart plasma electrodes, wherein the electrodes act as plates of a capacitor, the gas electrically discharges and creates a plasma of both positive and negative ions, in a clean process that enables efficient sample analysis, with preferred isolated sample photo-ionization, reduced-power operation and also including signal detection with modulated drive electronics.

1 . (canceled) 
   
   
       2 . A compact differential mobility spectrometer (DMS) analyzer comprising:
 an ionization source,   a chip-based DMS filter for passing select ions from the ionization source through an analytical gap, the analytical gap being defined by at least one pair of filters electrodes,   a driver circuit for providing a filter signal to the at least one pair of filter electrodes, the driver circuit including a voltage combiner for combining a time-varying signal with and a DC signal to form the filter signal.   
   
   
       3 . The analyzer of  claim 2 , wherein a portion of the voltage combiner is included on a printed circuit board. 
   
   
       4 . The analyzer of  claim 3 , wherein the voltage combiner includes an integrated circuit amplifier. 
   
   
       5 . The analyzer of  claim 4 , wherein the integrated circuit amplifier includes a MOSFET. 
   
   
       6 . The analyzer of  claim 4 , wherein the DC signal originates from a DC voltage source and the time-varying signal originates from a time-varying voltage source. 
   
   
       7 . The analyzer of  claim 6 , wherein the chip-based DMS filter and the driver circuit are included in an integrated package. 
   
   
       8 . The analyzer of  claim 4 , wherein the voltage combiner includes at least one transformer. 
   
   
       9 . The analyzer of  claim 8 , wherein the at least one transformer includes primary windings and secondary windings. 
   
   
       10 . The analyzer of  claim 9 , wherein at least one of the primary winding and secondary windings are embedded on a circuit board. 
   
   
       11 . The analyzer of  claim 10 , wherein the DC voltage source is in electrical communication with the secondary windings. 
   
   
       12 . A method for analyzing a sample comprising:
 ionizing a portion of the sample,   passing through select sample ions using a chip-based ion mobility based filter, the ion mobility based filter including at least one pair of filters electrodes,   combining a time-varying signal with and a DC signal using a voltage combiner to form a filter signal, and   providing the filter signal to the at least one pair of filter electrodes.   
   
   
       13 . The method of  claim 12  comprising including a portion of the voltage combiner on a printed circuit board. 
   
   
       14 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the voltage combiner includes an integrated circuit amplifier. 
   
   
       15 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the integrated circuit amplifier includes a MOSFET. 
   
   
       16 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the DC signal originates from a DC voltage source and the time-varying signal originates from a time-varying voltage source. 
   
   
       17 . The method of  claim 16  comprising including the chip-based ion mobility based filter and the driver circuit in an integrated package. 
   
   
       18 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the voltage combiner includes at least one transformer. 
   
   
       19 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein the at least one transformer includes primary windings and secondary windings. 
   
   
       20 . The method of  claim 19 , wherein at least one of the primary winding and secondary windings are embedded on a circuit board. 
   
   
       21 . The method of  claim 20 , wherein the DC voltage source is in electrical communication with the secondary windings.