Implementation of a new technology for point detection John Petinarides, M. Todd Griffin General Dynamics ATP 4205 Westinghouse Commons Drive Charlotte, NC 28277 Raanan A. Miller, Erkinjon G. Nazarov, Anthony D. Bashall Sionex Corporation 300 Second Avenue Waltham, MA 02451 ABSTRACT General Dynamics ATP (GDATP) and Sionex Corporation (Sionex) are carrying out a cooperative development for a handheld chemical agent detector, being called JUNO™, which will have lower false positives, higher sensitivity, and improved interference rejection compared with presently available detectors. This enhanced performance is made possible by the use of a new principle of ion separation called Differential Mobility Spectrometry (DMS). The enhanced selectivity is provided by the field tunable nature of the Sionex differential mobility technology (microDMxTM) which forms the analytical heart of the JUNO system and enables fingerprinting of molecules by characterization of the ionized molecular behavior under multiple electric field conditions. This enhanced selectivity is valuable in addressing not only the traditional list of chemical warfare agents (CWA) but also the substantial list of Toxic Industrial Compounds (TICs) and Toxic Industrial Materials (TIMs) which may be released in warfare or terrorist situations. Experimental results showing the ability of the microDMx to reject interferences, detect and resolve live agents are presented. An additional breakthrough in the technology was realized by operating the device at a reduced pressure of around 0.5 atmospheres. This reduced pressure operation resulted in roughly doubling the spectrometers resolution over what has previously been reported [1]. Advances have also been made in power consumption and packaging leading to a device suitable for portable, handheld, applications. Experimental results illustrating the performance of the microDMx technology employed in JUNO are highlighted. Keywords: Differential Mobility Spectroscopy, Chemical Warfare Agent Detection, Analytical Instrumentation *jpetinarides@gdatp.com ; Phone: (980) 235-2247; Fax: (980) 235-2247; 4205 Westinghouse Commons Drive, Charlotte, NC 28277 1. INTRODUCTION With the continuing threat from chemical and biological weapons, the need for more effective and reliable detectors continues to be an issue for both the military and homeland security. Most, if not all, of today’s deployed detection devices were developed to address the relatively narrow range of classic warfare agents of the cold war era. However, with the escalation of world terrorism there is a need to deal with a broader range of threats that include a substantial list of TIC’s and TIMs. This places an even greater burden on detector technologies which must offer even higher selectivity without compromising sensitivity. The requirement is for fast response times with significantly lower false positives. Most of the currently deployed detectors are based on Ion Mobility Spectrometry (IMS) technology, developed to maturity over the last several decades. We believe that microDMx technology will provide a much higher level of effectiveness and reliability in meeting current needs for point detection, and demonstrate the potential for evolutionary development to even greater performance, miniaturization and cost reduction. Sionex has miniaturized these devices using microfabrication techniques to produce significantly smaller, mass producible, and reproducible sensors. The key attributes of the sensor technology are its high sensitivity and ability to Chemical and Biological Sensing VI, edited by Patrick J. Gardner, Proceedings of SPIE Vol. 5795 (SPIE, Bellingham, WA, 2005) 0277-786X/05/$15 · doi: 10.1117/12.609911 65