Self-shielding flex-circuit drift tube, drift tube assembly and method of making
| DWPI Title: Ion mobility drift tube for providing self-shielding effect, has flexible nonconductive substrate arranged between top nonconductive layer and bottom nonconductive layer |
| Abstract: The present disclosure is directed to an ion mobility drift tube fabricated using flex-circuit technology in which every other drift electrode is on a different layer of the flex-circuit and each drift electrode partially overlaps the adjacent electrodes on the other layer. This results in a self-shielding effect where the drift electrodes themselves shield the interior of the drift tube from unwanted electro-magnetic noise. In addition, this drift tube can be manufactured with an integral flex-heater for temperature control. This design will significantly improve the noise immunity, size, weight, and power requirements of hand-held ion mobility systems such as those used for explosive detection. |
| Use: Ion mobility drift tube of drift tube assembly (claimed) for providing self-shielding effect. |
| Advantage: Ion mobility drift tube which provide improved noise immunity, ruggedness and manufacturability with reduced size, weight and power requirements can be achieved. |
| Novelty: The drift tube (10) has a tube portion (12) with a top and bottom nonconductive layers. A flexible nonconductive substrate is provided with a top surface and a bottom surface, arranged between the top and the bottom nonconductive layers. Multiple outer and inner conductive electrodes (22,24) are arranged on and in contact with the top and the bottom surface of the flexible nonconductive substrate in the tube portion respectively. The flexible nonconductive substrate is a polymer. A heating element is an integral heater (20) that surrounds the top surface of the tube portion. |
| Filed: 2/5/2015 |
| Application Number: US14615263A |
| Tech ID: SD 12800.1 |
| This invention was made with Government support under Contract No. DE-NA0003525 awarded by the United States Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration. The Government has certain rights in the invention. |
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