Dh Technologies Development Pte. Ltd.

Applera Corporation

Mds Inc.

Mds Analytical Technologies, a Business Unit of Mds Inc.

Dh Technologies Pte. Ltd.

Applied Biosystems (canada) Limited

Mircea Guna

Bruce Andrew Collings

Bruce A Thomson

Alexandre V Loboda

Yves Le Blanc

Hassan Javaheri

Thomas R Covey

Bradley B Schneider

Frank Londry

Bruce Colllngs

In one aspect, a method of processing ions in a mass spectrometer is disclosed, which comprises trapping a plurality of ions having different mass-to-charge (m/z) ratios in a collision cell, releasing said ions from the collision cell in a descending order in m/z ratio, and receiving the ions in a mass analyzer having a plurality of rods to at least one of which an RF voltage is applied, where the RF voltage is varied from a first value to a lower second value as the released ions are received by the mass analyzer.

RF ion trap ion loading method

A method of processing ions in a mass spectrometer comprises introducing one or more precursor ions into a collision cell to fragment at least a portion of said ions, where the collision cell is configured to confine ions having m/z ratios above a selected threshold (i.e., high m/z ions). The ions are released from the collision cell and introduced into a downstream analyzer ion trap to radially confine high m/z ions. The collision cell and the analyzer ion trap are configured to confine ions having m/z ratios below said selected threshold (i.e., low m/z ions). Ions are introduced into the collision cell and undergo fragmentation. The fragment ions are released from the collision cell and introduced into the analyzer ion trap, thus loading the analyzer ion trap with both high m/z and low m/z ions. The ions are released from the analyzer ion trap and detected by a detector.

Systems and methods described herein relate to a mass spectroscopy system having multipole ion guides that can receive ions from an ion source for transmission to downstream mass analyzers, while preventing unwanted ions from being transmitted into the high-vacuum chambers of mass spectrometer systems. At least one ion guide can have two or more auxiliary electrodes that extend along at least a portion of the ion guide. A power supply provides an RF voltage to the poles of the ion guide for radially confining the ions within the internal volume of the ion guide. The auxiliary electrodes are also provided with an auxiliary electrical signal that can selectively radially deflect from the internal volume at least a portion of low m/z ions so as to prevent transmission of undesired low m/z ions into the downstream mass analyzers.

Multipole ion guide

Systems and methods described herein utilize an ion guide for use in mass spectrometer systems, which ion guide can receive ions from an ion source for transmission to downstream mass analyzers, while preventing debris (e.g., unsolvated droplets, neutral molecules, heavy charged clusters) from being transmitted into a high-vacuum chamber of the mass spectrometer system. In various aspects, systems and methods in accordance with the present teachings can increase throughput, improve the robustness of the system, and/or decrease the downtime typically required to disassemble/clean sensitive components within the high-vacuum portions of the mass spectrometer system.

A linear ion trap includes a quadrupole having four substantially parallel conductive rods that are substantially coextensive in the axial direction. The rods include two diagonally arranged pairs including one continuous, rod pair and one pair of rods that are segmented such that the two segments in a rod are capacitively coupled to facilitate an RF drop when an RF signal is applied to one longer segment and capacitively provided to the other shorter segment. An RF signal is provided to the continuous rods and tire longer segment of the segmented rods.

Mass-selective axial ejection linear ion trap

Methods and apparatus for operating a mass spectrometer are described. In various aspects, ions of a mass range of interest may be mass-selectively ejected from an accumulation ion trap into a multi-ion trap structure. Each ion trap of the multi-ion trap structure may be configured to confine ions within a portion of the mass range of interest. The ions may be simultaneously scanned from the ion traps of the multi-ion trap structure for concurrent detection at a detector component.

Method and apparatus for processing ions

Systems and methods are provided for performing multiplex electrostatic linear ion trap mass spectrometry. A first beam of ions is received and the first beam is split into N beams of ions using a beam splitter. N is two or more. Ions are received from only one of the N beams of ions at each entrance aperture of N entrance apertures of an electrostatic linear ion trap (ELIT). Ions from each entrance aperture of the N entrance apertures are trapped in separate linear flight paths using the ELIT, producing N separate linear flight paths. Ion oscillations in the N separate linear flight paths are measured at substantially the same time using the ELIT. The ELIT uses two concentric mirrors with N apertures to trap ions in the N separate linear flight paths. The ELIT uses an image current detector with N apertures to the measure the ion oscillations.

Multiplexed electrostatic linear ion trap

An ion trap is disclosed comprising a plurality of elongate electrodes aligned with one another and with a central longitudinal axis along respective longitudinal axes and that are spaced apart from one another and disposed about a central longitudinal axis to form a quadrupole. The ion trap further comprises an elongate electrode that is aligned with and disposed along the central longitudinal axis, and circuitry coupled to the outer electrodes is suitable for driving the central and outer electrodes to selectively trap of ions within a region defined between the central electrode and the outer.

Dynamic multipole Kingdon ion trap

A method of operating a tandem mass spectrometer system is disclosed including accumulating ions in an ion trap, transmitting a plurality of ions out of the ion trap into a timed-ion selector, applying a pulsed DC voltage to the timed-ion selector, the pulsed DC voltage being modulated to match an ejection time for selecting a first portion of ions from the plurality of ions, corresponding to a specific m/z window, transmitting the first portion of selected ions out of the timed-ion selector into a reaction cell, transmitting dissociation product ions and the remaining ions of the first portion of selected ions out of the reaction cell into a mass analyzer, and mass-selectively transmitting at least some of the fragment ions and the remaining ions of the first portion of selected ions out of the mass analyzer into a detector.

System and method for quantitation in mass spectrometry

A system of mass spectrometry is disclosed having an ion source for generating ions at substantially atmospheric pressure. The system has a sampling member with an orifice disposed therein. The sampling member forms a vacuum chamber with a mass spectrometer. The system also has a curtain plate between the ion source and the sampling member. The curtain plate has an aperture therein, having a cross-section and being spaced from the sampling member to define a flow passage between the curtain plate and the sampling member, and to define an annular gap between the orifice and the aperture. The area of the annular gap is less than the cross-sectional area of the aperture. The system also has a power supply for applying a voltage to the curtain plate, and a curtain gas flow mechanism for directing a curtain gas into the flow passage and the annular gap.

System and method for applying curtain gas flow in a mass spectrometer

A system and method involving processing ions in a linear ion trap are provided, involving a two-dimensional asymmetric substantially quadrupole field having a hexapole and octopole component.

Methods and systems for providing a substantially quadrupole field with significant hexapole and octapole components

A method for operating a mass spectrometer having an ion trap over a plurality of selected mass-to-charge ranges constituting an overall mass-to-charge range is disclosed. For each of the plurality of selected mass-to-charge ranges the method comprises filling the ion trap with fragmented ions of the selected mass-to-charge ranges, cooling the fragmented ions trapped in the ion trap for a first cooling period, applying an RF voltage and a resolving direct current voltage to the ion trap for eliminating any remaining fragmented ions outside the selected ion mass-to-charge range and retaining ions within the selected ion mass-to-charge range, cooling the retained ions in the ion trap for a second cooling period, and scanning the retained ions out of the ion trap and detecting the ions released therefrom.

Method to control space charge in a mass spectrometer

A method for operating tandem ion traps is provided, involving a) accumulating ions in the first ion trap at a first time; b) transmitting a first plurality of ions out of the first ion trap and into the second ion trap at a second time, the first plurality of ions having masses within a first mass range; c) retaining a second plurality of ions in the first ion trap at the second time, the second plurality of ions having masses within a second mass range different from the first mass range; d) transmitting the first plurality of ions out of the second ion trap at a third time; and, e) transmitting the second plurality of ions out of the first ion trap and into the second ion trap at the third time.

Growing community of inventors

Toronto, Canada

Mircea Guna