Thermo Finnigan LLC

Stephen Davis

Alexander A Makarov

Jonathan Hughes

Kevin Hunter

Richard Whitney Stresau

Wayne Leslie Sheils

A mass spectrometer comprises an ion source which produces an ion beam from a substance to be analysed and a detector to detect a quantity of ions incident thereon. The detector includes two elements () each of which detect a part of the quantity of ions and an attenuation device attenuates the quantity of ions reaching one of the detector elements. At least one of the detector elements () is connected to a time to digital converter (TDC) to allow counting of the ions and at least one of the detector elements is connected in parallel to both a time to digital converter (TDC) and an analogue to digital converter (ADC).

High dynamic range mass spectrometer

An ion detection arrangementfor a time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectrometerincludes a beam splitter formed as a meshat the end of the TOF acceleration and detection chamber. Ions enter the detection arrangement through a common entrance window and are then divided by the beam splitter. Those ions striking the meshgenerate secondary electronswhich are detected by a microchannel plate forming a first detector. Those ions passing through the ion beam splitter are detected directly by a second detectoralso formed from a microchannel plate. The two detectors are each connected to a corresponding data acquisition systemand the data obtained by each are combined to generate a mass spectrum. The problems of detector saturation are thus avoided.

Growing community of inventors

Macclesfield, United Kingdom

Stephen Davis