A modular, isolated high-voltage switch for application in ion mobility spectrometry

Ion mobility spectrometry is an emerging technology in trace gas analysis that has moved from typical safety and security applications to many other fields ranging from environmental and food quality monitoring to medicine and life sciences. Nevertheless, further dissemination, including the development of new instruments and the expansion into new fields of application requires the availability of the fundamental components of ion mobility spectrometers. For example, the electronics is essential for the analytical performance, but is only provided by specialized manufacturers due to specific requirements. In this paper, we present a modular, isolated high-voltage switch that can be operated at an isolated potential. The modular design enables tailoring its configuration to the required application. Each module can switch a voltage of up to 3 kV, and can be operated with an offset voltage of up to 7 kV. The switch has rise and fall times of less than 25 ns, making it suitable for a wide range of applications, e.g., in ion mobility spectrometry. Finally, the presented modular, isolated high-voltage switch was used in a push–pull configuration to generate the injection pulse of the ion gate. The new modular, isolated high-voltage switch shows similar performance compared to a commercially available high-voltage switch.