Patent ID: 6323482
Filing Date: 2001-11-27
Classification: G01N,H01J

Abstract:
A method of generating ion mass spectral information, comprising the steps of:generating gaseous ions from a sample source;collecting at least some of said generated gaseous ions in an ion trap;repeating said generating and collecting steps a number of times to thereby form a gaseous bulk of ions in the ion trap;releasing said gaseous bulk of ions from said ion trap;gating at least a portion of said bulk of ions into an ion mobility spectrometer to thereby separate said bulk of ions in time to form a number of ion packets each having an ion mobility associated therewith;sequentially directing at least some of said ion packets into a mass spectrometer;continually activating said mass spectrometer to thereby sequentially separate at least some of said ion packets in time to form a number of ion subpackets each having an ion mass associated therewith; andprocessing at least some of the ion subpackets to determine mass spectral information therefrom.