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:
Aug. 31, 2004
Filed:
May. 15, 2002
Jeffrey V. Peck, Knoxville, TN (US);
Dale A. Gedcke, Oak Ridge, TN (US);
Russell D. Bingham, Knoxville, TN (US);
Advanced Measurement Technology, Inc., Oak Ridge, TN (US);
Abstract
A method and apparatus for precision time interval measurement in a time-of-flight mass spectrometer (TOF-MS). The method and apparatus produces an instrument capable of measuring bursts of data occurring at rates much higher than the average data rate. An asynchronous serial stream of data, consisting of a start pulse followed by an arbitrary number of stop pulses, repeated an arbitrary number of times, is converted into a digital stream of data synchronized to a precision master clock. Conversion of the asynchronous, analog data to synchronous digital data simplifies the measurement task by allowing the use of powerful, low-cost digital logic in the measurement.