Tandem time-of-flight mass spectrometer with damping in collision cell and method for use
US6534764B1 · kind B1 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Jun 9, 2000 |
| Grant date | Mar 18, 2003 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Sep 18, 2021 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH01J49/004
- WIPO fieldElectrical machinery, apparatus, energy
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A tandem mass spectrometer is disclosed having a collisional damping cell that slows down and adapts an ion beam, from a time-of-flight mass spectrometer (TOF MS) to a second mass spectrometer, preferably an orthogonal TOF MS. The cell provides a substantial damping of the energy of the ions in multiple collisions with a gas. An RF-only quadrupole is used to spatially focus the ion beam in the collision cell. As result, the operation of second mass spectrometer can be decoupled from the rest of the instrument, or in some cases with the energy being sufficiently damped the pulsed nature of the primary ion beam can be partially preserved and used to enhance the sensitivity of the second mass spectrometer. An ion selector passes only stable parent ions of interest, thereby introducing ions into the cell at a well controlled low energy. The ion beam can be injected into the collision cell with or without separation as well as with or without fragmentation. Thus, the results obtained with the second mass spectrometer can be used to control each individual step of the tandem MS, including ion formation in the source, ion focusing, metastable fragmentation in the first time of-flight spec…
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.