Patent ID: 7858937

Claim:
A mass spectrometer, comprising: a) an ionizer for simultaneously ionizing components present within a predetermined two-dimensional area on a sample; b) a mass separator for separating ions, generated by the ionizer, in such a manner that the ions will be emitted at different points in time according to their mass-to-charge ratio while maintaining a two-dimensional relative positional relationship with which the ions have been generated; c) a two-dimensional detector including multiple pairs of converters and two-dimensional array detectors, each converter receiving the ions separated by the mass separator and converting each ion into a photon or electron whose amount corresponds to that of the ion, while maintaining the two-dimensional relative positional relationship with which the ions have been generated, each two-dimensional array detector consisting of an in-situ storage image sensor having a detector section and a memory section, the detector section including two-dimensionally arrayed micro detection elements each detecting the photon or electron produced by the converter and outputting a corresponding electric signal, the memory section being capable of individually holding electric signals produced by each micro detection element for a predetermined number of frames, the multiple pairs of converters and two-dimensional array detectors being arranged in parallel along an extending direction of the detector section; and d) an ion deflector located in a space between an ion emission port of the mass separator and the converters, for creating an electric field and/or magnetic field producing a force for deflecting a flight path of an ion passing through the space, wherein a magnitude of deflecting the flight path with the ion deflector is changed so that an ion passing through the ion deflector at a different point in time will be detected by a different pair of the converter and the two-dimensional array detector in the two-dimensional detector.