Comparison of rectangular and bisinusoidal waveforms in a miniature planar high-field asymmetric waveform ion mobility spectrometer.

High-field asymmetric waveform ion mobility spectrometry (FAIMS) separates ions by utilizing the mobility differences of ions at high and low fields. The shape of the waveform is one of the essential features affecting the resolution, transmission, and separation of FAIMS. Due to practical circuitry advantages, sinusoidal asymmetric waveforms are typically used in FAIMS, whereas theoretical studies indicate that square asymmetric waveforms improve ion separation, resolution, and sensitivity. Results from FAIMS using square and sinusoidal waveforms are presented, and effects of the waveforms on ion separation are discussed. A FAIMS system interfaced with a quadrupole ion trap mass spectrometer was used in this study. FAIMS spectra were generated by scanning the compensation voltage (CV) while operating the mass spectrometer in total ion mode. The identification of ions was accomplished through mass spectra acquired at fixed values of ions' CVs. Square waveform evaluation was done by acquiring data at three frequencies and six duty cycles of the square waveform generator. The performance of FAIMS using square and sinusoidal waveforms at 250, 333, and 500 kHz frequencies was compared, and trends were identified. For all frequencies, the best response of FAIMS was achieved at the lower amplitudes and under the lower duty cycles of the square waveform generator. The separation of FAIMS was better at the higher frequencies. These results demonstrate the potential to incorporate square-wave FAIMS into the design of a miniature device for detection of explosives in the field. SIMION version 8.0, the ion trajectory modeling program, was utilized to optimize the performance of the miniature FAIMS cell and to validate experimental results.