Photonis USA, an electro-optic manufacturer, has been awarded a European patent for the manufacture of an ion mobility spectrometer built using resistive glass technology. Patents were previously granted in the US for the instrument, as well as for other specific products made with the specialty glass.
Resistive Glass creates an electric field to guide or direct charged particles. It consists of alkali-doped lead silicate glass that has been reduced to make the surface a semiconductor.
The patent is the latest of many awarded to Photonis for its innovation and development of improving analytic instrument simplicity and ion flow.
Resistive Glass can be used in the manufacture of capillary inlet tubes, drift tubes, ion guides and other component parts found in most mass spectrometers. The increased ion transfer results in a 6-10X increase ion transmission into the mass spectrometer.
This patent award supports Photonis’ global growth strategy by protecting its technology, allowing expansion into markets and applications requiring rapid non-destructive analysis of solid and liquid samples – including homeland security, pharmaceutical analysis, metabolomics, food analysis, detection of counterfeit contents as well as process monitoring.
