Patent ID: 7230238

Claim:
A system for analyzing a sample comprising, an asymmetric electric field for dispersing ions of the sample, an ion filter having filter electrodes separated by an analytical gap and defining a flow path, within which the asymmetric field is formed, a controller for establishing a first set of operating conditions for the ion filter to separate first ones of the dispersed ions from others of the dispersed ions and, based at least in part on the first set of operating conditions, establishing a second set of operating conditions to separate second ones of the dispersed ions from others of the dispersed ions, a detector along the flow path downstream of the ion filter for detecting the spectra of separated ions wherein the controller is in electrical communication with the detector, and a data store for enabling the controller to identify an ion species based on a comparison of the detected spectra of the first ones of dispersed ions with a spectra of at least one known ion species in the data store at the first set of operating conditions and a comparison of the detected spectra of the second ones of dispersed ions with a spectra of at least one known ion species in the data store at the second set of operating conditions.