Project Title

Designing and fabrication of an aerodynamic lens for nanoparticles of variable size

Project Images

Image Caption:Particle Seeder

Web Abstract

The proposal describes the design and fabrication of a compact particle (micro/nano particles) concentrator, also known as aerodynamic lens, to form a jet of particles in vacuum, to be applied to develop instrumentation for aerosol analysis and deposition systems. A pure particle beam with multiple applications in nanostructured material synthesis, microscale device fabrication, spectroscopy, analysis of heavy molecules such as proteins, creation of three dimensional microstructures, implanting of large metal ions etc will therefore be generated. With concentrated (‘focussed’) particle beam sizes of 0.3 mm, large-scale 3D writing and microstructuring processes in device fabrication can be realized. We propose to combine the lens with an electron impact mass spectrometer to develop a compact instrument to analyze the chemical composition of nanoparticles or aerosols. The robust and compact instrument will be designed for deployment on mobile systems, terrestrial and airborne. Our industry partner H Fillunger and Co Pvt Ltd having extensive experience in vacuum systems, plasma deposition systems etc will collaborate in the fabrication of the lens system. In this collaboration we also propose the development of a methodology for deposition of thin and uniform layers on surfaces for additive fabrication of microstructures using the lens system.