This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5)
The primary purpose of this project is to derive a modular, interchangeable set of electronic control devices for mass spectrometers dedicated to measurements of noble gases. The light noble gases (helium, neon, and argon) provide powerful tools for determining the ages of earth materials and monitoring environmental processes that are important in university and federal research laboratories of the United States. Strategies to meet the increasing demands of noble gas research must include the maintenance of investments in existing high-quality instrumentation and the promotion of new and cost-effective instrumentation to provide access for a greater number of researchers. These strategies have common solutions in the area of electronic control design and the integration of electronic systems with computer control. The electronic devices created in this two-year project will be developed, retrofitted and tested on a novel mass spectrometer recently constructed in the Auburn Noble Isotope Mass Analysis Laboratory at Auburn University, and also on a spectrometer constructed in 1990 and recently acquired by the Berkeley Geochronology Center. We intend to create two sets of electronics for these two instruments that are relatively interchangeable, thus demonstrating a broader applicability to instruments commonly in use in the United States. The goal for these upgrade electronics is to improve system performance and reliability commensurate with state-of-the-art scientific research, including the 40Ar/39Ar analysis of extremely young materials, laser spot analyses of very small masses of material, and also the acquisition of very large datasets.
This project addresses important national goals in science, technology, engineering, and mathematical instruction, and this is especially relevant for the state of Alabama. Outreach support in this project will enable talented high-school students to participate in laboratory design and research. Instruments developed through this project will stimulate further innovation and manufacture of relatively inexpensive mass spectrometers in America, and enhance the investments made in noble gas mass spectrometer facilities over the past three decades. This project will have an influence to lower the typical costs of noble gas analysis, and increase the number of viable mass spectrometry facilities.
The devices developed in this project will place all critical variables for mass spectrometer operation (the electromagnetic analyzer, source, and detector) under computer control and enable real-time monitoring and archival record keeping of system processes. To the maximum extent possible, the devices constructed will utilize industry standard components that are widely available today and represent the greatest economy in use (balancing factors including the ease of service, physical size, management of heat production, etc.) The products of this proposed research will include electronics schematics and discussions of principles of operation for the devices that would be suitable to allow service and/or construction by a qualified electrical technician or engineer (as would be found in the research equipment support group of a typical university). Products derived from this project can help enable a private-industry partner to fabricate and provide such devices as a service to the noble gas community.
