Abstract:
An electronic ion detection system which may detect low-energy charge particles such as ions from, for example, a mass spectrometer system. The capacitive sensors are located with two plates which are separated by an insulator. The ions which impinge on one of the plates cause charge to be created. That charge may be amplified and then handled by a charge mode amplifier such as a CCD sensor. That CCD sensor may operate using fill and spill operations.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application claims priority from provisional application No. 60/262,020 filed on Jan. 16, 2001. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF INVENTION 
     Focal plane mass spectrometers are known. For example, one popular focal plane type mass spectrometer is of the so-called Mattauch-Herzog geometry. These devices spatially separate ions having different masses along the focal plane. An advantage of this kind of spectrometer operation is that 100 percent duty cycle is possible along with the high sensitivity for ion detection. This compares with previous systems such as photographic plates, which may be cumbersome and may lack sensitivity. 
     An electro-optic ion detector (EOID) is described in U.S. pat. No. 5,801,380 for the simultaneous measurement of ions spatially separated along the focal plane of the mass spectrometer. This device may operate by converting ions to electrons and then to photons. The photons form images of the ion-induced signals. The ions generate electrons by impinging on a microchannel electron multiplier array. The electrons are accelerated to a phosphor-coated fiber-optic plate that generates photon images. These images are detected using a photodetector array. 
     The EOID, although highly advantageous in many ways, is relatively complicated since it requires multiple conversions. In addition, there may be complications from the necessary use of phosphors, in that they may limit the dynamic range of the detector. A microchannel device may also be complicated, since it may require high-voltage, for example 1 Kv, to be applied. This may also require certain of the structures such as a microchannel device, to be placed in a vacuum environment such as 106 Torr. At these higher pressures of operation, the microchannel device may experience ion feedback and electric discharge. Fringe magnetic fields may affect the electron trajectory. Isotropic phosphorescence emission may also affect the resolution. The resolution of the mass analyzer may be therefore compromised due to these and other effects. 
     SUMMARY OF INVENTION 
     The present application defines a charge sensing system which may be used, for example, in a Mass Spectrometer system, e.g. a GCMS system, with a modified system which allows direct measurement of ions in a mass spectrometer device, without conversion to electrons and photons (e.g., EOID) prior to measurement. An embodiment may use charge coupled device, “CCD” technology. This CCD technology may include metal oxide semiconductors. The system may use direct detection and collection of the charged particles using the detector. The detected charged particles form the equivalent of an image charge that directly accumulates in a shift register associated with a part of the CCD. This signal charge can be clocked through the CCD in a conventional way, to a single output amplifier. Since the CCD uses only one charge-to-voltage conversion amplifier for the entire detector, signal gains and offset variation of individual elements in the detector array may be minimized. This may prove to be an advantage over CMOS technology. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     FIG. 1 shows an embodiment. A mass spectrometer system  98 , which may be a gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer combination or a mass spectrometer alone, produces ions along a focal plane  99 . Ions of different masses are spatially separated along the focal plane. These ions should be measured along the focal plane with individual detectors with high spatial resolution. According to the embodiment, measurement of the ions on the focal plane may use an electronic linear array detector. 
     An array of capacitive elements coupled to a CCD shift register form a detector for the charged particles along the focal plane. In the embodiment, a linear array of CCD pixels  100 ,  105 ,  110 ,  115  is formed along a focal plane  99 . Each pixel is formed using conventional three-phase CCD process technology. Each pixel has a capacitive sensing element part  130 , formed of two layers of conductive material insulated from one another. The conductive material may be, for example, aluminum or other conductive wiring material. The capacitive sensing elements may be coupled to the CCD shift register using a charge mode input structure  135 . The charge mode input structure is typically known as a fill-and-spill input structure. This element senses the charge that is collected on a capacitive sensing element and creates a packet of signal charge that is proportional to the charge on the capacitor. Fill and spill is well known in the art, and is described, for example, in D. D. Buss et al, “Applications to Signal Processing”, Charge Coupled Devices And Systems, 1979. Fill and spill may produce linearity of greater than 100 db with negligible offset levels. The fill and spill structure may also effectively provide gain in the charge domain. For example, the charge mode amplifier in this embodiment may have a gain of 10. The output of the charge mode amplifier is sent to a signal collection area  140 , and then to a CCD shift register  145 . Further detail on this structure is provided herein. 
     FIG. 2 shows a representation of the unit cell operating as a charged particle detector. As described above, the ions are captured by a pair of electrodes, including an ion capture electrode  200 ,and a bottom electrode  202 . Incident charged particles are captured by the electrode pair. 
     Each of the electrodes is connected to a respective transistor; electrode  200  is connected to transistor  205  and electrode  202  is connected to transistor  206 . The transistors are actuated to periodically reset the potential on the electrodes  200 , 202  to a reset level. Gates  210  are located below the electrodes. The gates  210  comprise the fill and spill input, level control gates and CCD register part. A controller  250 , which may be part of the detector, or some external unit, may control the production of the signals described herein, in the sequence that is described herein. 
     FIG. 3 illustrates the device initialization procedure, in which the detection capacitor  199  is initialized and reset. The first part of the device operation requires that the top and bottom electrodes  200 ,  202  of the detection capacitor  199  be reset to a known potential. The respective field effect transistors  205  are therefore actuated to apply a known potential to the electrodes  200 ,  202 . The bias on DD 1  may be lowered. A bias is also applied via the “SIG” gate. 
     FIG. 4 illustrates releasing the capacitors from reset, and filling the “reservoir” area, under the reservoir gate  400 , with charge, as part of the fill and spill. First, the bias applied to the diode region DD 1  is raised towards ground. This has the effect of providing a source of charge which spills over the barrier formed by the gate DC and into the reservoir area. During this time, the gate DDG is held in the on state, which allows overflowing charge to be directly removed from the structure through the drain diode DDO. 
     In FIG. 5, the reset FETs  205 , 206  are turned off. The diode DD 1  is also rebiased to its initial positive level. The output gate DDG/TG is maintained off. This allows the signal in the reservoir to come to equilibrium. In this way, any residual reset charge is removed. 
     This fill and spill operation as described above may substantially compensate against sensitivity to the absolute voltage level that is applied to the capacitor plates. Thus, any variations in FET threshold, both inherent FET threshold, and radiation induced FET threshold, become less important. These variations may not result in signal offset variations within the unit cells that form the detector array. This may also remove KTC noise that may otherwise be present as a result of filling a well with charge via a diode source. 
     FIG. 6 shows the result when all equilibrium operations are complete. The structure then begins to detect charged particles. As the particles are detected on the capacitor plates, the charge from those particles changes the voltage level on the gate SIG. This voltage change allows packets of charge to flow from the reservoir, across the SIG gate and into the collection wells under the gates W- 2  and W- 3 . By using a large reservoir and a smaller SIG gate, amplification may occur in the charge domain. A small change on the SIG gate may produce a larger amount of charge flow from the reservoir. At the end of a desired part of the cycle, the DDG/TG gate may be biased to prevent further charge transfer. 
     FIG. 7 illustrates the end of the integration cycle. The potential level within the silicon well defined by the SIG gate potential determines the amount of integrated signal charge. The charge detection and signal integration can continue until the potential produced by the SIG gate drops below the level of charge that is being held under the reservoir. In reality, integration can be halted at any time using the reset transistors  205 , 206 . 
     FIGS. 8 and 9 show how the collected signal charge is transferred from the storage wells under gates W- 2 , W- 3  into the CCD shift register S 1 , S 2 . FIG. 8 shows transferring the charge form the collection region into the CCD shift register. Then, FIG. 9 shows the completed operation, with the charge in the CCD shift register. The transfer is carried out by applying appropriate biases to the control gates. Charge is then detected at the output of the CCD shift register by a standard charge-to-voltage conversion stage. 
     Although only a few embodiments have been disclosed in detail above, other modifications are possible. For example, the embodiment disclosed above describes using a single, large, detection capacitor formed from two continuous plates. An alternative system, however, may use a series of smaller detection capacitors, connected in series through a second set of CCD registers. The second set of registers may be connected orthogonal to the CCD shift register. The registers may sum charge packets from each of the small capacitances. This system may allow faster operation and improved noise performance in some conditions.