Development of a QMS with a ceramic single-piece quadrupole

Abstract A novel quadrupole mass spectrometer (QMS) has been developed by using a ceramic single-piece quadrupole. The quadrupole was made of silicon nitride (Si 3 N 4 ). The four hyperbolic surfaces were coated with metal thin films of about 10 μm to form electrodes. Mass spectra were successfully obtained by using the conditions of the second stable zone in the mathieu diagram. It seems that there are no differences in sensitivity and resolution between the two QMSs with a ceramic quadrupole and a conventional metal one of the same dimensions.