Pulse generator for time of flight mass spectrometer

ing. N.Lupsa, ing. V.Mirel, ing. I.Muresan

National Institute for Research and Development of Isotopic and Molecular Technologies, Cluj-Napoca, RO-400293, ROMANIA

We present the problems about the design and manufacture of a generator developed for an experiment of a ion source of a time of flight mass spectrometer. The major characteristics of the generator are: 
-the maximum amplitude of  the pulse 2.5 KV,
 -rise time less than 50ns,
 -digital control of the period of time and of the time of pulse repetition  
	For generating the high voltage of pulse, we use the fast switch type <<HTS51>> and for generating the command pulses we use TTL logical circuits and a quartz clock generator with f=10MHz. This frequency is upper limited by the maximum frequency of logical circuits and determinates the resolution for setting the period of the pulse at 100ns.
We can improve the performances with a decade by using two switches HTS51 in push-pull configuration and with using of high speed MCL logical circuits (a more expensive solution).