Patent ID: 7148472

Claim:
An aerosol time-of-flight mass spectrometer comprising: an elongated sealed vacuum chamber having an axial direction with a central longitudinal axis, said elongated sealed vacuum chamber having an input side and an opposite side, said input side having at least two inlet ports for admission to said elongated sealed high-vacuum chamber of at least two flows of charged particles of a substance to fly through said elongated sealed vacuum chamber simultaneously and independently of each other; electrostatic field generation means for generating an electrostatic field in said an elongated sealed vacuum chamber for causing charged particles that entered said elongated sealed high-vacuum chamber through said at least two inlet ports to fly along different curvilinear trajectories in a direct path from said input side towards said opposite side and in a return path from said opposite side to said input side; and a charged particle detector means for detecting times of collisions of said charged particles with said charged particle detector means for determining the time of flight of said charged particles independently for each of said at least two flows, said charged particle detector means being located in the vicinity of said at least two inlet ports and generating collision signals at the moments of said collisions.