The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 16, 2003
Filed:
Oct. 12, 2000
Thomas Dresch, Cambridge, MA (US);
Analytica of Branford, Inc., Branford, CT (US);
Abstract
A Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometer (TOF-MS) is configured to improve resolution and sensitivity performance. The TOF-MS includes an arrangement of electrodes comprising an ion accelerator with two stages of homogeneous electric fields, an ion reflector with a single stage of a homogeneous electric field, accelerator and reflector being separated by a first drift space, and an ion detector which is separated from the reflector by a second drift space. Contrary to known TOF-MS of similar configuration, the set of electric potentials which must be applied to said electrodes is predetermined for a given geometry in such a way that a spatial distribution of ions initially at rest in the first gap of the said accelerator is compressed at the location of the detector in the longitudinal direction to a focus of first and second order in the initial axial coordinate. Therefore, mass resolution is enhanced over a TOF-MS that provides only for longitudinal focusing of first order, while the number of passages through grid electrodes along the flight path is reduced, and hence ion transmission and instrument sensitivity are improved.