{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,12]],"date-time":"2025-10-12T03:32:36Z","timestamp":1760239956487,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":40,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2019,2,1]],"date-time":"2019-02-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1548979200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"the National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["51575312"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["51575312"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>It is difficult to generate and maintain the vacuum level in vacuum MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems) devices. Currently, there is still no single method or device capable of generating and maintaining the desired vacuum level in a vacuum device for a long time. This paper proposed a new wide-pressure-range miniature ion source, which can be applied to a vacuum micropump. The miniature ion source consists only of silicon electrodes and a glass substrate. Its operating pressure range covers seven orders of magnitude, starting from atmospheric pressure, a promising solution to the difficulty. Based on the principle of gas discharge, the ion source features a simple two-electrode structure with a two-stage electrode spacing, operating under DC voltage excitation. The first-stage electrode spacing of the ion source is small enough to ensure that it starts working at atmospheric pressure down to a certain reduced pressure when it automatically switches to discharge at the larger second-stage electrode spacing and operates from that pressure down to a high vacuum. Two configurations of the ion source have been tested: without-magnet, operating from atmospheric pressure down to 1 mbar; and with-magnet, operating from atmospheric pressure to 10\u22124 mbar, which covers seven orders of magnitude of pressure. The ion source can be applied not only to a MEMS ion pump to meet demands of a variety of vacuum MEMS devices, but can also be applied to other devices, such as vacuum microgauges and mass spectrometers.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s19030624","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2019,2,1]],"date-time":"2019-02-01T11:19:58Z","timestamp":1549019998000},"page":"624","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Cathode Design Optimization toward the Wide-Pressure-Range Miniature Discharge Ion Source for a Vacuum Micropump"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"19","author":[{"given":"Tongtong","family":"Yao","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Precision Measurement Technology and Instruments, Department of Precision Instrument, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Fei","family":"Tang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Precision Measurement Technology and Instruments, Department of Precision Instrument, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Jian","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Precision Measurement Technology and Instruments, Department of Precision Instrument, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Xiaohao","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Precision Measurement Technology and Instruments, Department of Precision Instrument, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2019,2,1]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"663","DOI":"10.1088\/0960-1317\/13\/5\/318","article-title":"A study on wafer level vacuum packaging for MEMS devices","volume":"13","author":"Lee","year":"2003","journal-title":"J. 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