Patent ID: 6967325

Claim:
An apparatus useful for gas phase analysis of ions comprising: a. An hourglass electrodynamic funnel formed of at least an entry element, a center element, and an exit element, each of said elements having an aperture, and wherein said entry element is aligned such that a passageway for charged particles is formed through the aperture within said entry element, through the aperture in said center element, and then through the aperture in said exit element, and wherein said aperture in said center element is smaller than the aperture of said entry and said exit elements; b. a drift tube, wherein the hourglass electrodynamic funnel forms the entrance to the drift tube thereby providing a passageway for ions generated in a relatively high pressure region at the exterior of the drift tube to a relatively low pressure region at the interior of the drift tube through said elements; c. a detector having a ion transmission means for transmitting ions from the exit of said drift tube to a time-of-flight detector wherein said ion transmission means allows the transmission of ions at less than 5% of the total ion drift time in said ion drift tube.