A finite element analysis of multiple ion receiving plates for ionizer balance monitoring

This paper reports a finite element analysis of multiple ion receiving plates to investigate the optimum number of plates for achieving fine-grained resolution in ionizer balance measurement. Both square and circular plates, also subdivided into 4, 9, 16, 25, and 36 segment plates, were modeled in an electrostatic field. The potential distribution of each model was further analyzed by simple linear regression to assess the measurement resolution. The results indicate that the segmented plates provide improved measurement resolution.