Patent ID: 8217344

Claim:
A system for analyzing one or more ion species of a sample comprising, an ion source, a pre-filter assembly operating substantially at atmospheric pressure, including: a planar differential mobility spectrometer filter having a filter inlet, the planar differential mobility spectrometer filter passing one or more ion species of the sample through a time-varying field applied by a waveform generator in an analytical gap between a pair of filter electrodes, including a first filter electrode and a second filter electrode, an outlet for providing a flow of ions from the differential mobility spectrometer filter, and a first mass spectrometer for receiving at an inlet at least a portion of the flow of ions from the pre-filter assembly and analyzing one or more ion species, and a controller for activating the planar differential mobility spectrometer filter when pre-filtering is desired and deactivating the planar differential mobility spectrometer filter when pre-filtering is not desired, wherein the filter inlet is positioned substantially in-line with the inlet of the first mass spectrometer.