Abstract
The nature of the ion signal from a 12-T Fourier-transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometer and the electronic noise were studied to further understand the electronic detection limit. At minimal cost, a new transimpedance preamplifier was designed, computer simulated, built, and tested. The preamplifier design pushes the electronic signal-to-noise performance at room temperature to the limit, because of its enhanced tolerance of the capacitance of the detection device, lower intrinsic noise, and larger flat mid-band gain (input current noise spectral density of around 1 pA/√Hz when the transimpedance is about 85 dBΩ). The designed preamplifier has a bandwidth of ~3 kHz to 10 MHz, which corresponds to the mass-to-charge ratio, m/z, of approximately 18 to 61 k at 12 T. The transimpedance and the bandwidth can be easily adjusted by changing the value of passive components. The feedback limitation of the circuit is discussed. With the maximum possible transimpedance of 5.3 MΩ when using an 0402 surface mount resistor, the preamplifier was estimated to be able to detect ~110 charges in a single scan.