Patent ID: 8704163

Claim:
A high resolution high sensitivity mass spectrometer, comprising: a quadrupole configured to pass an abundance of one or more ion species within stability boundaries defined by (a, q) values; one or more ion optics configured to provide a focused entrance beam that comprises said abundance of one or more ion species, wherein said focused is directed slightly off-center at the entrance of said quadrupole; a detector configured at the distal end of said quadrupole to record the spatial and temporal properties of said abundance of ions at a desired cross-sectional area; and a processor configured to subject said recorded spatial and temporal properties of said abundance of one or more species of ions to deconvolution as a function of the RF phase at each RF and/or applied DC voltage, the entrance to exit phase shift, and the stability parameters (a, q) that determine beta so as to provide mass discrimination of said one or more ion species.