Patent ID: 7649171

Claim:
A apparatus for analyzing biological small molecules of a liquid sample, comprising: an evacuated liquid sample input chamber including apparatus for vaporizing and ionizing a liquid sample being fed into the chamber; mass spectrometer apparatus fabricated on a semiconductor chip connected to the input chamber and having an input port for receiving ionized vapor of the liquid sample from the input chamber, and wherein the spectrometer apparatus includes, a collimation chamber having a vapor collimation sub-assembly connected to the liquid sample input chamber via an output port thereof and having at least one vacuum pumping aperture and vacuum pump for evacuating and drawing said ionized vapor from the evacuated chamber into the collimation chamber; a repeller sub-assembly located adjacent the vapor collimation sub-assembly of the collimation chamber; an ionizer sub-assembly located adjacent the repeller member for further ionizing the ionized vapor; an ion optics chamber located adjacent the ionizer sub-assembly; at least one evacuated ion filter and separation chamber located adjacent the ion optics chamber and including means for generating an electromagnetic field therein for separating ions therein by their respective mass/charge ratio; and a detector array for detecting ions separated in the mass filter and ion separation chamber and located a predetermined distance therefrom by an intermediate drift space region.