A nanoelectromechanical systems mass spectrometer (NEMS-MS) is an instrument measuring the mass of analyte particles by detecting the frequency shift caused by the adsorption of the particles on a NEMS resonator.
NEMS-MS was invented by Prof. Michael Roukes and Dr. Kamil Ekinci at the California Institute of Technology in 1999.
[1][2] First attainment of attogram-scale mass sensitivity was documented in their 2001 patent disclosure.
[4] They later developed single molecule analysis in 2009.
[5][6] Single-biomolecule mass measurements were first accomplished by this team in 2012.