Patent ID: 11953478
Assignee: DH TECHNOLOGIES DEVELOPMENT PTE. LTD.
Field: Measurement (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G  H | IPC G  H

Claim 0:
1. Apparatus for detecting the separation of an unknown compound from a sample, comprising:
a separation device that separates each of one or more unknown compounds from a sample over a separation time period based on a property of the one or more unknown compounds;
an ion source device that ionizes separated compounds received from the separation device, producing one or more compound precursor ions for each of the one or more unknown compounds and a plurality of background precursor ions;
a mass spectrometer that includes a mass analyzer, wherein the mass analyzer measures a precursor ion mass spectrum for the combined compound and background precursor ions received from the ion source device at each time step of a plurality of time steps spread across the separation time period, producing a plurality of precursor ion mass spectra, wherein the mass spectrometer selects one or more background precursor ions from the plurality of precursor ion mass spectra that have a resolving power in a range below a threshold resolving power expected for the mass analyzer, and wherein the mass spectrometer detects a separation time for one of the one or more unknown compounds when a decrease in an intensity measurement of the one or more selected background precursor ions over a time period exceeds a threshold decrease in intensity with respect to time.