Thermo Finnigan LLC

Mark E Hardman

Alexander Alekseevich Makarov

Michael W Senko

Jae C Schwartz

Adrian Land

Lee Earley

Michael William Belford

Jean-Jacques Dunyach

Gershon Perelman

R Paul Atherton

Oleg Silivra

Stephen Charles Davis

Michael G Konicek

Rexford T Heller

An electrospray ion source comprises: a needle capillary comprising a spray tip end and an opposite end; a nebulizing gas channel parallel to the needle capillary; an auxiliary gas channel parallel to the needle capillary; a heater parallel to a length of the auxiliary gas channel; a thermally conductive heat transfer member parallel to a length of the needle capillary and disposed between the needle capillary and the heater, said heat transfer member having a first end adjacent to the spray tip end of the needle capillary and a second end opposite to the first end; and a cooled heat sink member in thermal contact with the second end of the heat transfer member.

Apparatus and system for active heat transfer management in ESI ion sources

A ion source for a mass spectrometer comprises: a capillary having a nozzle for emitting a nebulized fluid sample; an electrode of the capillary; a high voltage power supply; a second electrode disposed within or configurable to be disposed within a path of the nebulized fluid sample; and at least one switch for selecting application of an electrical potential provided by the high voltage power supply to either or both of the capillary electrode or the second electrode, wherein the capillary and capillary electrode are configurable so as to ionize the nebulized fluid sample by electrospray ionization and the second electrode is configurable so as to ionize the nebulized sample by atmospheric pressure chemical ionization.

Interchangeable ion source for electrospray and atmospheric pressure chemical ionization

A system for analyzing ions comprises: an ion source; a FAIMS cell comprising: (a) a gas inlet; (b) an outer electrode having a generally concave inner surface and comprising: (i) an ion inlet operable to receive the ions from the ion source and a carrier gas from the gas inlet; and (ii) an ion outlet; and (c) an inner electrode having a conduit therethrough and having a generally convex outer surface disposed in a spaced-apart and facing arrangement relative to the inner surface of the outer electrode defining at least one annular on separation region therebetween; and a mass analyzer for mass analyzing ions transmitted by the FAIMS cell through the ion outlet, wherein the inner electrode is moveable between a first position and a second position, the first and second positions facilitating movement of the ions through the at least one annular ion separation region and the conduit, respectively.

FAIMS having a displaceable electrode for on/off operation

A system for analyzing ions comprises: an ion source; a FAIMS cell comprising: (a) a gas inlet; (b) an outer electrode having a generally concave inner surface and comprising: (i) an ion inlet operable to receive the ions from the ion source and a carrier gas from the gas inlet; and (ii) an ion outlet; and (c) an inner electrode having a conduit therethrough and having a generally convex outer surface that is disposed in a spaced-apart and facing arrangement relative to the inner surface of the outer electrode for defining an ion separation region therebetween; and a mass analyzer for mass analyzing ions transmitted by the FAIMS cell through the ion outlet, wherein the inner electrode is moveable between a first position and a second position, the first position facilitating movement of the ions through the ion separation region, the second position facilitating movement of the ions through the conduit.

Auxiliary electrodes for creating drag fields may be provided as arrays of finger electrodes on thin substrates such as printed circuit board material for insertion between main RF electrodes of a multipole. A progressive range of voltages can be applied along lengths of the auxiliary electrodes by implementing a voltage divider that utilizes static resisters interconnecting individual finger electrodes of the arrays. Dynamic voltage variations may be applied to individual finger electrodes or to groups of the finger electrodes.

Auxiliary drag field electrodes

A mass spectrometercomprises an ion sourcewhich generates nebulized ions which enter an ion coolervia an ion source block. Ions within a window of m/z of interest are extracted via a quadrupole mass filterand passed to a linear trapIons are trapped in a potential well in the linear trapand are bunched at the bottom of the potential well adjacent an exit segmentIons are gated out of the linear trapinto an electrostatic ion trapand are detected by a secondary electron multiplierBy bunching the ions in the linear trapprior to ejection, and by focussing the ions in time of flight (TOF) upon the entrance of the electrostatic trapthe ions arrive at the electrostatic trapas a convolution of short, energetic packets of similar m/z. Such packets are particularly suited to an electrostatic trap because the FWHM of each packet's TOF distribution is less than the period of oscillation of those ions in the electrostatic trap.

Mass spectrometry method and apparatus

A method of controlling the population of ions in a mass spectrometer in which a first sample of ions is provided in the mass spectrometer, a measure of abundance of a species of interest in the first sample of ions is determined, the measure of abundance comprising an intensity value, and a second sample of ions is introduced into the mass spectrometer. The second sample of ions is introduced in an amount determined at least in part on the measure of abundance of the species of interest in the first sample of ions.

Method and apparatus for controlling the ion population in a mass spectrometer

A mass spectrometercomprises an ion sourcewhich generates nebulized ions which enter an ion coolervia an ion source block. Ions within a window of m/z of interest are extracted via a quadrupole mass filterand passed to a linear trap. Ions are trapped in a potential well in the linear trapand are bunched at the bottom of the potential well adjacent an exit segment. Ions are gated out of the linear trapinto an electrostatic ion trapand are detected by a secondary electron multiplier. By bunching the ions in the linear trapprior to ejection, and by focussing the ions in time of flight (TOF) upon the entrance of the electrostatic trap, the ions arrive at the electrostatic trapas a convolution of short, energetic packets of similar m/z. Such packets are particularly suited to an electrostatic trap because the FWHM of each packet's TOF distribution is less than the period of oscillation of those ions in the electrostatic trap.

Disclosed are a time-of-flight mass spectrometer and signal processing electronics. The signal processing electronics include a plurality of time-to-digital converters configured to receive signal pulses from the same detector anode within the time-of-flight mass spectrometer. The signal processing electronics are further configured to differentiate, and compensate for, those signal pulses caused by the detection of more than one ion. Differentiation and compensation are achieved by using the time-to-digital converters to detect the leading and trailing edges of a signal pulse. The time difference between the detection of the leading edge and detection of the trailing edge is indicative of whether or not the signal pulse was generated by the detection of more than one ion.

Leading edge/trailing edge TOF detection

An apparatus that comprises material which have different thermal expansion coefficients, combined in such a way that the length of the drift region is variant, and self adjusting with temperature. The adjustment is such as to compensate for the length changes resulting from thermal expansion or contraction in other ion optical elements, such that ions of substantially equivalent mass to charge ratios maintain a constant flight time though the system. This allows for use of standard construction methods for the ion optical elements.

Temperature compensated time-of-flight mass spectrometer

A mass spectrometercomprises an ion sourcewhich generates nebulized ions which enter an ion coolervia an ion source blockIons within a window of m/z of interest are extracted via a quadrupole mass filterand passed to a linear trapIons are trapped in a potential well in the linear trapand are bunched at the bottom of the potential well adjacent an exit segmentIons are gated out of the linear trapinto an electrostatic ion trapand are detected by a secondary electron multiplier By bunching the ions in the linear trapprior to ejection, and by focussing the ions in time of flight (TOF) upon the entrance of the electrostatic trapthe ions arrive at the electrostatic trapas a convolution of short, energetic packets of similar m/z. Such packets are particularly suited to an electrostatic trap because the FWHM of each packet's TOF distribution is less than the period of oscillation of those ions in the electrostatic trap.

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Santa Clara, CA, United States of America

Mark E Hardman