Design and simulation of a 3D-stacked miniaturized ionization vacuum sensor with an external ion collector and magnetic electron confinement

Miniaturized ionization vacuum sensors face a fundamental performance bottleneck where extreme miniaturization leads to limited sensitivity and nonlinear deviations due to shortened electron paths, parasitic background currents, and poor electron confinement. This work presents a simulation-driven structural optimization strategy for 3D-stacked miniaturized ionization vacuum sensors. The optimized design combines an external ion collector, physically separated from the ionization chamber, with combined electric and magnetic fields for charged-particle regulation. The external collector geometrically limits direct soft-X-ray and secondary-electron related contributions to the measured collector current, thereby providing a potential route to reducing background-current-induced nonlinearity. Meanwhile, axial magnetic confinement guides electrons into extended helical reciprocating trajectories while substantially reducing electron impingement on dielectric sidewalls. The optimized sensor achieves a simulated sensitivity of 0.0114 Pa −1 , approximately three times the reported sensitivity of a reference sensor with a comparable device volume. The effects of acceleration-grid voltage and magnetic flux density are further analyzed to identify the key factors influencing sensitivity. In addition, a physical prototype was fabricated, and preliminary pressure-response results support the feasibility of the stacked architecture and external ion-collection scheme.