Patent · US Expired

Microwave spectrometer

US5057782A · kind A · utility

9Cited by
5References
5Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateAug 16, 1990
Grant dateOct 15, 1991
Priority date
Expiry dateAug 16, 2010

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG01N22/00
  • WIPO fieldMeasurement
  • WIPO sectorInstruments

Abstract

A spectrometer for analyzing a sample substance which comprises a chamber (40) for supporting a sample to be analyzed. A gas drive circuit (42) communicates with the chamber (40) and the gas drive circuit (42) and chamber (40) are at least partly enclosed within a heated jacket (44). The gas flow through the gas circuit and chamber (40) entrains sample molecules in the flow and a nozzle (30) is provided to spray the gas flow and entrained molecules as a supersonic beam seeded with the molecules between a pair of plates (32 and 34) between which an electric field is created. The electrodes (32 and 34) comprise Stark electrodes. A microwave source (50) and a receiver (60) are arranged so that the source (50) produces a microwave beam which passes through the supersonic beam as the beam expands between the electrodes 32 and 34 which is detected by the detector 60. The detector 60 detects an absorption signal of the molecules which seed the supersonic beam.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.