Patent ID: 7772548

Claim:
An ion mobility analyzer comprising at least one of (a) a “differential mobility analyzer” (DMA), (b) an “ion mobility spectrometer” (IMS) and (c) a “differential mobility spectrometer” (DMS), to which charged molecules of interest are fed, wherein ions are fed to the ion mobility analyzer from a “droplet pickup ion source” comprising an electrospray ion source that forms charged droplets from a solvent mixture in which substantially no amount of the molecules of interest are dissolved, and said charged droplets are pulled by an electric field into a “pickup region” which can be either the surface of a solid or liquid sample or a volume filled with a buffer gas at a pressure in which pickup region said charged droplets incorporate said molecules of interest and transfer the charge of said charged droplets to said molecules of interest, when the liquid in said charged droplets has evaporated in a heated desolvation region that is separate or integral with respect to said “pickup region”.