Patent ID: 8426806

Claim:
A system for detecting and identifying ions, comprising: an entry portion for ions; a chamber through which the ions traverse during operation; an electric field generator coupled to the chamber, wherein pulses of electric field generated by the electric field generator are adapted to direct the ions in the chamber; a spatial detector configured to receive a first set of ions, the spatial detector comprising a first plurality of detector pixels arranged in a two-dimensional array, wherein a first group of detector pixels of the first plurality of detector pixels are associated with respective addresses and are configured to receive same first target ions of the first set of ions and to convert the first target ions into a first group of first voltage signals, wherein the first group of detector pixels are distributed in the two-dimensional array to define a geometric pattern; a readout module adapted to select the first group of detector pixels from among the first plurality of detector pixels and read the first group of first voltage signals and the addresses of the selected detector pixels, thus detecting the same first target ions of the first set of ions; and a chemical recognition module configured to receive the first group of first voltage signals and the addresses from the readout module and identify the same first target ions of the first set of ions based on the first group of first voltage signals and the addresses, wherein the two-dimensional array is located at least at a longitudinal distance (L) in a longitudinal direction from the entry portion, wherein at least one dimension of the two dimensions of the two-dimensional array is based on a height direction for ions, the height direction being orthogonal to the longitudinal direction, and wherein a relationship between the longitudinal distance (L) and a height distance (h) in the height direction and an applied electric field (E) is given by h = K × E × L V d where K is ion mobility and V d is drift velocity of ions.