Patent ID: 6198096
Filing Date: 2001-03-06
Classification: H01J

Abstract:
A method for analyzing ions by determining the time of flight of the ions from a source before detection at a detector, comprising:(a) generating a series of pulses according to an encoded sequence;(b) selecting from the series of pulses to launch a plurality of packets of ions from the source, each of said selected pulses launching a packet of ions such that ions launched in the adjacent packets overlap prior to reaching the detector;(c) at the end of the series generating again another cycle of the series and selecting in the another cycle a number of pulses that have not be selected before in the series to launch a plurality of packets of ions from the source;(d) detecting the time of arrival of the ions of each packet in the detector and obtaining a signal corresponding to the overlapping spectra of the time of arrival of the packets of ions; and(e) correlating the signal with the encoded sequence to derive a nonoverlapping spectrum from the overlapping spectra.