Why not the old fashioned easy way?
public int[] ToASCII(string s)
{
char c;
int[] cByte = new int[s.Length]; / the ASCII string
for (int i = 0; i < s.Length; i++)
{
c = s[i]; // get a character from the string s
cByte[i] = Convert.ToInt16(c); // and convert it to ASCII
}
return cByte;
}