Multipole ion guide for mass spectrometry
DCFirst Claim
1. An apparatus for analyzing chemical species, comprising:
- (a) an ion source;
(b) at least two vacuum stages;
(c) a mass analyzer and detector located in at least one of said vacuum stages;
(d) a multipole ion guide, said multipole ion guide having an entrance end in one of said vacuum stages and having an exit end in another of said vacuum stages; and
, (e) means for applying electrical voltages to said multipole ion guide.
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Abstract
A multipole ion guide which begins in one pumping stage and extends continuously into one or more subsequent pumping stages has been incorporated into an atmospheric pressure ion source mass spectrometer system. Ions delivered into vacuum from an Electrospray, Atmospheric Pressure Chemical Ionization or Inductively Coupled Plasma ion source are guided and focused into a mass analyzer with high efficiency using the multipole ion guide. The background pressure over a portion of the multipole ion guide length is high enough to cause kinetic energy cooling of ions traversing the ion guide length due to ion collisions with neutral background gas molecules. This ion kinetic energy cooling lowers energy spread of ions traversing the multipole ion guide length. The multipole ion guide DC offset potential can be used to adjust the mean ion energy and the ion guide an and qn values can be set to reduce or expand the range of ion mass to charge which will be transmitted through the ion guide. These features of multipole ion guides and multiple pumping stage multipole ion guides are used to improve performance and lower the cost of Atmospheric Pressure Ion source mass spectrometer instruments.
59 Citations
69 Claims
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1. An apparatus for analyzing chemical species, comprising:
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(a) an ion source;
(b) at least two vacuum stages;
(c) a mass analyzer and detector located in at least one of said vacuum stages;
(d) a multipole ion guide, said multipole ion guide having an entrance end in one of said vacuum stages and having an exit end in another of said vacuum stages; and
,(e) means for applying electrical voltages to said multipole ion guide. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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26. An apparatus for analyzing chemical species, comprising:
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(a) an ion source;
(b) at least two vacuum stages;
(c) a Time-of-Flight mass analyzer and detector, said Time-of-Flight mass analyzer and detector each being located in at least one of said vacuum pumping stages;
(d) a multipole ion guide, said multipole ion guide having an entrance end in one of said vacuum stages and having an exit end in another of said vacuum stages; and
,(e) means for applying electrical voltages to said multipole ion guide. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43)
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44. An apparatus for analyzing chemical species, comprising:
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(a) an ion source for operation at substantially atmospheric pressure;
(b) at least two vacuum stages;
(d) a multipole ion guide, said multipole ion guide having an entrance end in one of said vacuum stages and having an exit end in another of said vacuum stages;
(d) a mass spectrometer and detector located in at least one of said vacuum stages for analysis of said ions; and
,(e) means for applying electrical voltages to said poles of said multipole ion guide. - View Dependent Claims (45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68)
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69. An apparatus for analyzing chemical species, comprising:
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(a) an ion source for operation at substantially atmospheric pressure;
(b) at least two vacuum stages;
(c) a multipole ion guide, said multipole ion guide having an entrance end in one of said vacuum stages and having an exit end in another of said vacuum stages, at least one of said vacuum stages into which said multipole ion guide extends being maintained at a background pressure of at least 1 millitorr;
(d) a mass analyzer and detector located in at least one of said vacuum stages for analysis of said ions; and
,(e) means for applying electrical voltages to said poles of said multipole ion guide.
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Specification