Patent ID: 7075065

Claim:
Mass spectrometry apparatus, the apparatus comprising: a serial arrangement of an ion source for charged molecules, first time of flight means, a field free region, means to fragment the charged molecules, a second time of flight means, and a large area detector, wherein the second time of flight means includes an ion mirror, the ion mirror being arranged to produce a reflecting substantially quadratic field, the first time of flight means is arranged to provide spatial focusing concomitant with time focusing of ions at or near the entrance to the ion mirror, the means to fragment the molecules is provided as a collision cell or in the field free region or in the first time of flight means, and the detecting surface of the detector being mounted in the time focal surface of the ion mirror, and further including means for compressing or bunching ions to improve the quality of time-foci space foci and the quality of the time and energy focal surface of the ion mirror.