Patent ID: 8003936

Claim:
A system comprising: a microwave or high-frequency RF energy source disposed in a cavity to ionize particles of a reagent vapor in a plasma chamber with microwave or RF energy to form one or more reagent ions, the plasma chamber at least partially located in the cavity; a drift chamber including an inlet port allowing a non-ionized, gaseous sample to enter the drift chamber to interact with the one or more reagent ions directed from the microwave or RF energy source to the drift chamber and to form one or more product ions; and a mass spectrometer module disposed relative to an exit orifice of the drift chamber, the mass spectrometer module including: a flight region through which the one or more product ions and the one or more reagent ions travel, the flight region defining a path length; and a collector region to receive the one or more product ions and the one or more reagent ions from the flight region, wherein a value for a mass is determined based on an amount of time over which each of the one or more product ions and the one or more reagent ions traverses the path length.