Varian Associates, Inc.

Elbert S Lile

James T Arnold

Charles B Cooper, Iii

Andrew T Zander

A spark sampling microparticle generator device and method providing means to first ionize a gap and then to switch a stabilized and controllable current into and out of said ionized gap to provide extremely high, selectable current density in a sample material in said gap with very fast rise and fall times to ablate said material to form microparticles. A plurality of identical modular circuits containing high frequency power transistors are selectably switchably connected in parallel simultaneously to the gap to achieve current densities which are higher than achievable with a single transistor, thereby obtaining the benefits of the high frequency response without being limited by the current limitations of the available transistors.

Growing community of inventors

Portola Valley, CA, United States of America

Elbert S Lile