Patent ID: 8330101

Claim:
A method of replacing an ion source comprising an ionization volume, at least one ionizing element configured to emit particles for performing collision based ionization, and at least one focusing element, in a mass spectrometer (MS) system comprising the ion source, a vacuum chamber that houses the ion source, and an interlock chamber, the method comprising: opening a valve between the interlock chamber and the vacuum chamber; moving the ion source from the vacuum chamber into the interlock chamber through the opened valve and closing the valve; removing the ion source from the interlock chamber; attaching a replacement ion source to a floating mount on a distal end of a probe, the floating mount enabling the attached replacement ion source to float with translational and rotational flexibility; placing the replacement ion source into the interlock chamber using the probe; opening the valve between the interlock chamber and the vacuum chamber; and moving the probe through the opened valve from the interlock chamber into the vacuum chamber until the ion source self-aligns with a docking station in the vacuum chamber, based on the translational and rotational flexibility of the floating mount on the distal end of the probe.