A radio frequency signal driver for quadrupole used in desktop orthogonal-injection time-of-flight mass spectrometer

According to the demand of home-made spectrometer, a radio frequency (RF) signal driver was developed. This RF signal driver is composed of signal generating circuit, signal amplification circuit and power output circuit, to drive the radio frequency quadrupole (RFQ). The designed RFQ is used to transfer ions generated in atmospheric pressure ion source to a home-made desktop orthogonal-injection time-of-flight mass analyzer. This signal driver is divided into low-frequency part and high-frequency part to support RFQ transferring ions of larger values (i.e., m/z=100–600) and smaller values (i.e., m/z=20–100) respectively. The low-frequency part of the RF signal driver can provide RF signals with resonance frequency of 1.43 MHz, peak to peak voltage Vp–p of 0–1080 V, and the high-frequency part can provide RF signals with resonance frequency of 2.05 MHz, peak to peak voltage Vp–p of 0–520 V. With the radio frequency signal driver described in this paper, ions in the range m/z 20–600 can be transmitted efficiently by RFQ.