Tofwerk Ag

Martin Tanner

Marc Gonin

Christian Tanner

Urs Rohner

Joel Kimmel

The invention relates to a microwave driven plasma ion source () for ionising a sample to be ionised to sample ions, the microwave driven plasma ion source () including a sample intake () for inserting the sample from an outside of the microwave driven plasma ion source () into an inside () of the microwave driven plasma ion source (): a microwave generator () for generating microwaves for generating a plasma () from a plasma gas (): a plasma torch () providing a plasma torch orientation direction () having an inside () for housing () a process of generation of the plasma () from the plasma gas () and for housing a process of ionising the sample to the sample ions by exposing the sample to the plasma (), wherein the plasma torch () comprises a torch outlet () for letting out the plasma () and the sample ions from the inside () of the plasma torch () essentially in the plasma torch orientation direction () to an outside of the plasma torch (), the torch outlet () having a torch aperture. Furthermore the microwave driven plasma ion source () includes a shielding () for shielding off the microwaves from passing from the inside () of the microwave driven plasma ion source () to the outside of the microwave driven plasma ion source (), wherein the shielding () comprises a shielding outlet () for letting out the plasma () and the sample ions from the inside () of the microwave driven plasma ion source () essentially in the plasma torch orientation direction () to the outside of the microwave driven plasma ion source (), the shielding outlet () having a shielding aperture. Thereby, the shielding outlet () is fluidly coupled to the torch outlet () for letting out the plasma () and the sample ions from the inside () of the plasma torch () essentially in the plasma torch orientation direction () to the outside of the microwave driven plasma ion source (), wherein a size of the shielding aperture is less than 150%, preferably less than 125%, particular preferably less than 110% of a size of the torch aperture, wherein both the size of the shielding aperture and the size of the torch aperture are measured in units of area.

Microwave driven plasma ion source

An apparatus for mass spectrometry comprises a portion generator () for creating localized analyte portions in synchronization with trigger pulses, a transfer system () coupled to the portion generator () for transporting the localized analyte portions, a plasma ionizer unit () coupled to the transfer system () for atomizing, vaporizing and ionizing received analyte portions with plasma, a mass analyzer () coupled to the plasma ionizer unit () for analyzing received analyte portions, the mass analyzer () comprising at least one detector, and a data acquisition electronics () connected to the at least one detector for acquiring signals () generated by the at least one detector. The apparatus further includes a signal delay device () for receiving the trigger pulses () and delivering delayed signals () corresponding to the trigger pulses to account for a delay experienced by the particles to be analyzed between portion generation and detection.

Apparatus and method for mass spectrometry

A device for mass spectrometry comprises an ionization source, a mass analyzer fluidly coupled to the ionization source and an electronic data acquisition system for processing signals provided by the mass analyzer. The electronic data acquisition system comprises at least one analog-to-digital converter () producing digitized data from the signals obtained from the mass analyzer and a fast processing unit () receiving the digitized data from said analog-to-digital converter (). The fast processing () unit is programmed to continuously, in real time inspect the digitized data for events of interest measured by the mass spectrometer; and the electronic data acquisition system is programmed to forward () the digitized data representing mass spectra relating to events of interest for further analysis and to reject the digitized data representing mass spectra not relating to events of interest. The device allows for maintaining efficiency at high speed by eliminating all processing times (idle time in acquisition) for data segments that do not contain information about events.

Growing community of inventors

Bern, Switzerland

Martin Tanner