11-06/07 :: June/July 2011

nanotimes News in Brief

needed to replace broken dies and reduces the ove- rall price of manufacturing parts. The Dynaforge me- thod can be used to make parts for the automotive, medical, defense and aerospace industries.

An adaptation to a widely used scientific instrument enables quick and efficient analysis of research samples. The Array Detection Technology for Mass Spectrometry significantly updates the detection ca- pabilities of mass spectrometers, which in turn could advance monitoring for nuclear activity and environ- mental damage, forensic testing and more. PNNL collaborated with Indiana University, the University of Arizona and Imagerlabs to deve- lop the technology.

Mass spectrometers analyze samples by separating molecules in a sample by their mass and electrical

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charge. Most conventional instruments can only detect a single mass or a small range of masses at one time. But samples contain parts of atoms and mole- cules that have many different sizes, which means conventional mass spectrometers must do multiple scans to analyze an entire sample. This is comparable to traffic going around a toll booth instead of going through it because there is only one lane open.

The Array Detection Technology is like adding several, automated, drive-through toll booths to speed up sample analysis. It uses thousands of tiny microchannel detectors, arranged densely in a single electronic device, to detect a wide range of masses at once. The technology allows a mass spectrometer to analyze a complete sample in just one scan, saving time and simplifying sample analysis. The technology has been incorporated into a plasma source mass spectrometer being sold by SPECTRO Analytical Instruments of Germany.

Left: The Array Detection Technology for Mass Spec- trometry, mounted here onto a chip carrier and circuit body, significant- ly updates the detection capabilities of mass spec- trometers. © PNL