Welcome to the PImMS website


Mass spectrometry is widely used to identify unknown compounds and to characterize molecular structures. The Pixel Imaging Mass Spectrometry (PImMS) project is developing a fast imaging sensor for next-generation time-of-flight mass spectrometers with unique imaging capabilities. The following video introduces PImMS:




Progress in semiconductor technologies has created the opportunity to produce novel fast imaging sensors for mass spectrometry imaging. For each mass, a mass spectrometer coupled with PImMS will image with high precision the complete velocity or spatial distribution of the ions at their point of formation. This will take mass spectrometry from its current role as a one-dimensional "weighing" technique into a multi-dimensional world, in which spatial, velocity, and even coincidence information is provided as a function of mass. PImMS is based on the deep submicron CMOS process INMAPS, originally developed by STFC-RAL for use at the International Linear Collider.