A new singly charged ion source using electron impact ionization has been developed to realize an isotope separation on-line system for simultaneous positron emission tomography imaging and heavy-ion cancer therapy using radioactive C-11 ion beams. Low-energy electron beams are used in the electron impact ion source to produce singly charged ions. Ionization efficiency was calculated in order to decide the geometric parameters of the ion source and to determine the required electron emission current for obtaining high ionization efficiency. Based on these considerations, the singly charged ion source was designed and fabricated. In testing, the fabricated ion source was found to have favorable performance as a singly charged ion source. (C) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.