A beam modulation device gate is constructed from a silicon material, such as a silicon layer on an silicon on insulator wafer. The device further comprises a set of electrical contacts on the layer. The layer defines a set of electrically conducting silicon material fingers forming an array, wherein each of at least some of the fingers is connected electrically to one of the electrical contacts. The gate may be used in a mass or ion mobility spectrometer. Where the gate is constructed from a silicon on insulator wafer, an insulator layer supports the silicon layer and a handle layer supports the insulator layer. When predetermined electrical potentials are applied to the electrical contacts, at least some of the fingers will be substantially at said predetermined electrical potentials to modulate a beam of charged particles that passes through said array of fingers. A plurality of devices of the type above may be used, where each of the devices modulates the beam so that the beam is deflected along a direction different from direction along which the beam is deflected by any of the remaining devices. A plurality of devices of the type above may be used for a mass gate or charged particle buncher device. For making an ion optical device, an array of fingers is formed in a silicon layer of the silicon on insulator wafer. A portion of a handle layer of the wafer on a side of an insulator layer of the wafer opposite to that of the fingers is removed; and a portion of the insulator layer is removed so that the fingers are connected to the wafer only through the silicon layer and at one end of the fingers.