Novel Data Acquisition System for Triple Quadrupole Mass Spectrometer: An Instrumentation Study

A novel type of data acquisition system has been successfully developed,dedicated to the triple quadrupole mass spectrometer(TQMS) made in China and based on Xilinx Zynq-7000 fully programmable platforms.The newly-designed data acquisition module is capable of data acquisition timing control,high-speed pulse counting and asynchronous first-in-first-out(FIFO) control.The system mainly comprised a 32-bit counter with a sampling frequency of 400 MHz and an error of ≤0.035‰.,and a self-designed signal conditioning circuit responsible for converting the ion pulse signal into Zynq directly acceptable LVTTL voltage level.In characterization of polypropylene glycol(PPG) with the TQMS equipped with the new data acquisition system,high quality mass spectra were easily obtained.Moreover,it significantly improves the automation,integration,measurement precision/scale and efficiency of TQMS.