Model 1000XP  Wide-range Paricle Spectrometer (WPS™)

The WPS™ is based on the well-known principles of aerosol sizing and counting by laser light scattering, differential mobility analysis (DMA), and condensation particle counting (CPC).  Laser Particle Counters (LPC) or Laser Particle Spectrometers (LPS) are generally limited to particles in the 0.1- to 10-µm diameter range, while sizing and counting by the DMA and CPC method is usually limited to 0.01 to 0.5 µm or 10-nm to 500-nm.  The WPS™ combines these sizing and sensing principles into one single device to measure particles from 10nm to 10,000nm.

Sizing and counting of aerosols by the DMA and CPC method is more commonly known as Differential Mobility Particle Sizing. When operating in the scanning mode, the device then becomes a Scanning Mobility Particle Sizer. Both of these devices are aerosol spectrometers. At MSP we refer to these devices by the more accurate scientific terms:  Differential Mobility Spectrometer (DMS™) and Scanning Mobility Spectrometer (SMS™).

The WPS™ samples aerosol at a rate of 3.3 liters per minute (L/min).  Three L/min of this flow is directed through the LPS for sizing and counting of particles in the 200-nm to 10,000-nm diameter range.  The remaining 0.3 L/min is directed through an ionizer to establish a Boltzmann equilibrium charge on the particles and through a miniature DMS™/SMS™ system comprised of a miniature high-resolution DMA and a Dual-Reservoir CPC to count and size aerosol particles in the 10-nm to 500-nm diameter range. The SMS™ provides 12, 24, 48, and 96 channels of size resolution. The WPS™ is recipe-controlled, allowing the user to create as many recipes as required for a variety of aerosol studies.  These recipes are then stored in memory to be recalled at any time, thus ensuring the same instrument settings can be used for data collection each time a given recipe is put into use. 

The DMS™/SMS™ system uses MSP’s advanced Differential Mobility Analyzer (DMA) with airflow, high voltage, and pressure and temperature compensation to provide the most accurate sizing possible.  Sheath flow for the DMA is recirculated to provide repeatable stable flow for improved DMA size response. The CPC is an advanced MSP design that has solved the traditional problems of water condensation and collection in the saturator. A dual reservoir design ensures the condensate is collected into a separate reservoir to avoid mixing of condensed water with the working fluid in the working fluid reservoir. The CPC design features rapid warm-up time and instrument response for accurate aerosol measurement.
The DMS™/SMS™ is calibrated at the factory to provide NIST-traceable calibration using PSL spheres with diameters of 100.7nm and 269nm from the National Institute of Standard and Technology (NIST).  The DMA and CPC are small, compact devices allowing the entire system to be placed within a small enclosure that is compact in size (12”H x 20”D x 17”W), lightweight (less than 50 lb), and efficient in energy use (~100W). The small compact design allows easy transport between laboratory and field locations for research scientists and application engineers requiring wide-range particle sizing and counting.

MSP’s WPS™ (1000XP Configuration A) and SMS™ (1000XP Configuration B) are the only spectrometers on the market featuring integrated system design and control. Operation is very user friendly with recipe-driven operation, minimizing set up errors and ensuring repeatable data collection. Data analysis software is included to allow exporting data to a Laptop/Host computer and converting count distribution data to volume and surface area distributions. Data fitting routines are also provided to allow fitting of size distribution data by mono-modal, bi-modal and tri-modal aerosol distribution functions.

Applications

• Atmospheric aerosol measurement
• Indoor air quality studies
• Laboratory aerosol research
• Characterization of emission sources
• Particle characterization for semiconductor, computer disk drive, and micro-contamination studies
• Aerosol characterization for atomizers, nebulizers, and other aerosol generating devices used for aerosol drug delivery and medical applications.