Patent ID: 7045776

Claim:
A Method for identification of an unknown item in a sample traveling through an excitation field, the excitation field having varying influence upon mobility behavior of the sample traveling through the excitation field, the method comprising the steps of: generating a varying excitation field; subjecting a sample to the excitation field, the sample having field-dependent mobility behavior that reflects field conditions; subjecting the sample to a plurality of field conditions; compensating the plurality of field conditions to pass the unknown item through the excitation field; identifying the unknown item as a member of a known species, the identification being based on known field-dependent mobility behavior of the known species in the compensated plurality of field conditions, and further comprising the steps of; defining a data store, the store including (i) data identifying a known asymmetric excitation field operating at known field conditions, and (ii) data identifying the known field-dependent mobility behavior for the known species; generating multiple sets of detection data that associate passing the unknown item through the excitation field with the plurality of field conditions; comparing the detection data with the data store to identify the unknown species by finding a closest match of the detection data with the data in the data store.