Patent ID: 8426809

Claim:
An apparatus for trapping charged particles and performing controlled interactions between them, the apparatus comprising: a substrate; and RF electrodes and dedicated DC electrodes arranged on the substrate and configured to generate a trapping potential for trapping the charged particles in trapping sites above the substrate, the RF electrodes and dedicated DC electrodes including: at least one RF trapping electrode configured to be driven with an RF voltage for contributing to the trapping potential; an array of two or more trapping site DC electrodes configured to be biased with a DC voltage for contributing to the trapping potential; and a first individually drivable RF control electrode arranged between a first pair of the trapping site DC electrodes and configured to be individually driven by an adjustable RF voltage such that the trapping potential above and between the first pair of trapping site DC electrodes (a) forms separate charged particle traps adapted for trapping charged particles therein if the adjustable RF voltage takes a first value, and (b) forms a charged particle interaction trap adapted for performing controlled interactions between charged particles if the adjustable RF voltage takes a second value.