Fasmatech Science and Technology LLC

Other

Fasmatech Science and Technology Sa

Shimadzu Corporation

Kratos Analytical Limited

Dimitris Papanastasiou

Emmanuel Raptakis

Alexander Lekkas

Ioannis Orfanopoulos

Diamantis Kounadis

Roger Giles

Andrew Bowdler

Ioannis K Nikolos

Emmanual Raptakis

An apparatus includes a linear ion trap and a charged particle source coupled to one another in a vacuum housing. The linear ion trap has a longitudinal axis and a trapping region configured to store analyte ions. The charged particle source has a conduit, a pulse valve, and a discharge device. The conduit extends towards the trapping region in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the linear ion trap and has an entrance and an exit. The pulse valve is disposed in fluid communication with the conduit and is configured to release a gas pulse from a gas supply into the entrance of the conduit. The discharge device is electrically coupled to an electrical potential supply and disposed between the entrance and the exit of the conduit. The electrical potential supply is configured to apply a high voltage to the discharge device to generate a discharge in the gas pulse in the conduit, thereby generating charged particles from the gas and accelerating the generated charged particles towards the trapping region in the direction perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the linear ion trap to activate analyte ions stored in the trapping region.

Method and apparatus

A linear ion trap system includes a linear ion trap having at least two discrete trapping regions for processing ions. An RF electrical potential generator produces two RF waveforms applied to a pair of pole electrodes of the linear ion trap forming a RF trapping field component to trap ions radially. A multi-output DC electrical potential generator produces a first set of multiple DC field components superimposed to the RF trapping field component and distributed across the length of the linear ion trap to control ions axially. A control unit is configured to switch the DC electrical potentials and DC field components collectively forming a first trapping region of the at least two discrete trapping regions that is populated with ions to alter ion potential energy from a first level to a second level, and to enable at least a first ion processing step in at least one of the first and second levels.

Segmented linear ion trap for enhanced ion activation and storage

A mass spectrometer for analyzing fragment ions includes an ion source, an ion mobility spectrometer, and a system of electrodes. The ion source is configured to produce fragment ions. The ion mobility spectrometer is configured to receive fragment ions produced by the ion source and to separate at least a fraction of the received fragment ions according to their ion mobility into mobility-separated fragment ions. The system of electrodes is configured to receive DC electrical potentials to transfer at least a fraction of the mobility-separated fragment ions to a mass analyzer for generating a mass-to-charge (m/z) spectrum exhibiting reduced spectral complexity.

Control of ions

A linear ion trap includes at least two discrete trapping regions for processing ions and at least one gas pulse valve for applying pulses of gas to dynamically control pressure in the at least two discrete trapping regions. A RF electrical potential generator produces two RF waveforms, each applied to a pair of pole electrodes of the linear ion trap forming a RF trapping field component to trap ions radially. A multi-output DC electrical potential generator produces multiple DC field components superimposed to the RF trapping field component and distributed across the length of the linear ion trap to control ions axially. A control unit is configured to switch the DC electrical potentials and corresponding DC field components collectively forming a first trapping region of the at least two discrete trapping regions that is populated with ions to alter ion potential energy from a first level to a second level, and to enable at least a first ion processing step in at least one of the first and second levels.

A linear ion trap includes at least two discrete trapping regions for processing ions, a RF electrical potential generator, a multi-output DC electrical potential generator, and a control unit. The RF electrical potential generator produces two RF waveforms each applied to a pair of pole electrodes of the linear ion trap forming a RF trapping field component to trap ions radially. The multi-output DC electrical potential generator produces multiple DC field components superimposed to the RF field component and distributed across the length of the linear ion trap to control ions axially. The control unit switches the DC electrical potentials and corresponding DC field components collectively forming a first trapping region populated with ions to alter ion potential energy from a first level to a second level, and enables a first ion processing step in at least one of the first and second levels.

Techniques are provided for generating charged droplets of liquid entrained within a gas flow within a vacuum chamber and for controlling the gas flow. The gas flow with the entrained charged droplets of liquid is jetted into the vacuum chamber along a predetermined jetting axis. The gas jet is received within a gas conduit housed within the vacuum chamber and having a conduit bore coaxial with the predetermined jetting axis. The received gas jet is caused to be restrained to form a laminar gas flow entrained with charged droplets inside of the gas conduit for guiding the entrained charged droplets therealong.

Charged droplets generating apparatus including a gas conduit for laminarization of gas flows

A guide apparatus includes a vacuum compartment provided at a background pressure and having a gas inlet opening arranged for jetting a gas in the form of a free jet stream containing entrained ions into a vacuum chamber along a predetermined jetting axis. At least one duct housed within the vacuum chamber has a guide bore positioned coaxially with the jetting axis for receiving the free jet stream such that a supersonic free jet is formed in the duct with a jet pressure ratio P/Prestrained to a value that does not exceed (A/a)to form a subsonic laminar gas flow inside of the duct for guiding the entrained ions, where Pis the pressure at an exit end of the gas inlet opening, Pis the background pressure, A is the cross sectional area of the bore, and a is the cross sectional area of the gas inlet opening.

A mass spectrometer comprises ion pulse means for producing ion pulses in a first vacuum chamber, ion trap means for receiving and trapping the ion pulses for mass analysis in a second vacuum chamber, and ion-optical lens means arranged between the ion pulse means and the ion trap means for receiving the ion pulses and outputting ions therefrom to the ion trap means. A first lens electrode and a second lens electrode collectively define an optical axis and are adapted for distributing a first electrical potential and second electrical potential therealong. Lens control means vary non-periodically with time the first electrical potential relative to the second electrical potential to control as a function of ion mass-to-charge ratio the kinetic energy of ions which have traversed the ion optical lens means. This controls the mass range of the ions receivable by the ion trap from the ion optical lens means.

The present disclosure relates to mass spectrometers and, in particular, multipole ion guides and control units that set the RF and DC potentials at the ion guide to, among other uses, radially confine an ion beam. In an exemplary embodiment, the ion guide includes circumferentially arranged elongated rods disposed about a common axis that form longitudinally traversing segments. At least a first and a second subset of the segments have an equal number of elongated rods and are physically configured to receive respective first and a second set of RF voltage waveforms from a control unit that produce a field distribution of a first order and a field distribution of a second order, respectively, different from the first order. The ratio of the number of rods to the order of the field distribution produced is an integer number.

Ion guide with different order multipolar field order distributions across like segments

The present invention is concerned with an ion analysis apparatus for conducting differential ion mobility analysis and mass analysis. In embodiments, the apparatus comprises a differential ion mobility device in a vacuum enclosure of a mass spectrometer, located prior to the mass analyzer, wherein the pumping system of the apparatus is configure to provide an operating pressure of 0.005 kPa to 40 kPa for the differential ion mobility device, and wherein the apparatus includes a digital asymmetric waveform generator that provides a waveform of frequency of 50 kHz to 25 MHz. Examples demonstrate excellent resolving power and ion transmission. The ion mobility device can be a multipole, for example a 12-pole and radial ion focusing can be achieved by applying a quadrupole field to the device in addition to a dipole field.

Ion analysis apparatus and method of use

A method of pulsing gas in a quadrupole ion trap to reduce excess internal energy of ions formed externally to the trap at high-vacuum conditions by laser desoprtion is disclosed. With pulsed gas introduction, pressures greater than those under which traps are normally operated can be achieved over a few milliseconds. Under these elevated pressure transients, the process of translational cooling is accelerated and ions undergo thermalized collisions before dissociation occurs. Minimization of uncontrolled fragmentation (thermalization) and enhanced sensitivity are observed at pressures exceeding a threshold of about 1 mTorr.

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Athens, Greece

Dimitris Papanastasiou