| Patent application number | Description | Published |
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| 20080251712 | MEASUREMENT OF THE MOBILITY OF MASS-SELECTED IONS - The mobility of mass-selected ions in gases is measured at pressures of a few hectopascal by selecting the ions under investigation in a quadrupole filter according to their mass-to-charge ratio m/z, measuring their mobility in a drift region at a pressure of a few hundred Pascal under the influence of a DC electric field and then filtering the measured ions by means of a quadrupole field in order to eliminate, or detect changes in, the mass-to-charge ratio. Several embodiments for the drift region are disclosed, in which the ions are kept in the axis of the drift region by RF fields. As these drift regions can also be utilized for a collision-induced decomposition of the ions, the device can additionally be used as a so-called triple quadrupole mass spectrometer. | 10-16-2008 |
| 20080251715 | INTRODUCTION OF IONS INTO A MAGNETIC FIELD - In a mass spectrometer that uses a space-restricted magnetic field, such as an ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometer, ions with a wide mass range generated in an ion supply located outside the magnetic field are transported in the direction of the magnetic field lines to an ion storage device located inside the magnetic field without losing ions by guiding the ions through the region in which the magnetic field strength increases with a special ion guide. This ion guide consists of an arrangement of coaxial ring diaphragms which are alternately supplied with the phases of an RF voltage. In an alternative embodiment, the ion guide uses two wires wound in a double helix where each wire is supplied with one phase of a two-phase RF voltage. | 10-16-2008 |
| 20090032700 | THREE-DIMENSIONAL RF ION TRAPS WITH HIGH ION CAPTURE EFFICIENCY - In a three-dimensional Paul RF ion trap at least one of the ring electrode and end cap electrodes is structured to produce a high capture efficiency for analyte ions introduced into the trap. The electrode structuring may be produced by an electrode surface profile having edges or protrusions, resulting in a scattering reflection of the introduced ions. Alternatively, at least one electrode may be formed by physically separate electrode components. In one embodiment, the trap can be switched between operating as a linear ion trap with good capture efficiency and operating as a three-dimensional ion trap with good ion reaction conditions. | 02-05-2009 |
| 20090039283 | IONIZATION OF DESORBED MOLECULES - An ion source generates ions from analyte molecules which are desorbed from a sample on the surface of a sample support in a pressure range of approximately 30 to 300 pascal. Reactant ions are generated in a separate ion source and guided by ion guides to the point in front of the sample or to a reaction chamber in which the desorbed molecules are located. The reactant ions ionize the desorbed molecules to form analyte ions. The analyte molecules can be mixed in matrix material or adsorbed on the sample support surface without additives. The desorption can be continuous or pulsed, for example by light from lasers or diodes. | 02-12-2009 |
| 20090084949 | EVALUATION OF SPECTRA IN OSCILLATION MASS SPECTROMETERS - The invention relates to mass spectrometers in which ion clouds are stored in two spatial directions by radial forces while oscillating largely harmonically at a mass-specific frequency in a third spatial direction perpendicular to the other two, in a potential minimum, the shape of which is as close to a parabola as possible. Analysis of the oscillation frequencies of these ion clouds, preferably by a Fourier analysis, leads via a frequency spectrum to a mass spectrum. The frequency spectrum is analyzed to identify false signals in the frequency spectrum as harmonics and eliminating them where necessary. | 04-02-2009 |
| 20090283675 | 3D ION TRAP AS FRAGMENTATION CELL - In a tandem mass spectrometer with mass selector spatially separated from a mass analyzer, ions are fragmented in a three-dimensional RF by electron transfer dissociation. The fragment ions are then extracted from the 3D ion trap and introduced into the mass analyzer. The extraction is accomplished by providing, in one of the ion trap end cap electrodes, an aperture with a relatively large area covered by a conductive mesh or formed by closely spaced smaller apertures. The fragment ions are extracted from the RF ion trap by applying a DC voltage to one of the end cap electrodes. | 11-19-2009 |
| 20090305327 | Mass Spectrometric Determination Of Blood Enzyme Activity - The invention relates to the determination of the nature and strength of enzymatic activity in blood using mass spectrometric measurement of a profile of the reaction products. The determination of the enzymatic activity can be used for medical diagnostics, for example, and also to check the effectiveness of medication. The invention provides a method whereby adding probe substances usually not present in blood offers standardized substrates for measuring the enzymatic activity. The probe substances may be added to whole blood, plasma, or serum. The mass spectrometric measurement of the reaction products, after their reversible immobilization on actively binding surfaces of solids, for example, can deliver biomarker patterns of the reaction products which may be indicators for metabolic anomalies or diseases, since these are often accompanied by the formation or activation of characteristic enzymes. | 12-10-2009 |
| 20100090102 | ION MOBILITY MEASUREMENT AT A POTENTIAL BARRIER - Ion mobilities are measured by entraining the ions in a gas and adiabatically expanding the ion-containing gas through a nozzle to form a gas jet. An electrical field barrier with variable height is located at the nozzle exit. The field barrier may be located adjacent to the nozzle exit or an ion guide may be located between the nozzle and the field barrier. If a continuous ion current is supplied, the height of the barrier is varied and the ion current of the ions passing over the barrier is measured, the ion current can be differentiated to generate a mobility spectrum. Alternatively, the ions can be temporarily stored in the ion guide so that measurement of the ion current of the ions passing over the barrier results in a direct measurement of the mobility spectrum. | 04-15-2010 |
| 20100176289 | EXCITATION OF IONS IN ICR MASS SPECTROMETERS - In an ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometer ions are excited into cyclotron orbits by an alternating current excitation signal having a nonlinear function of the excitation frequency vs. time in a “chirp.” Such an excitation signal produces transients which have no pronounced beats, even if mixtures of many ion species, all having the same mass differences, are present. The dynamic measuring range for the image currents can thus be better utilized. In particular, sum spectra of specified quality can be generated from a significantly smaller number of individual transients, and thus in a significantly shorter measuring time. | 07-15-2010 |
| 20100193679 | GUIDING CHARGED DROPLETS AND IONS IN AN ELECTROSPRAY ION SOURCE - Charged spray droplets are guided in a pseudopotential distribution generated by audio frequency voltages at electrodes of a guiding device, focusing the spray droplets toward the axis. An axial electric field profile and an axial flow profile of a drying gas in the guiding device allow the drift of different-sized droplets to be controlled in the longitudinal direction of the guiding device, so that the droplets are roughly equal in size when they leave the guiding device and finally dry up shortly after leaving. As a result, the ions are formed in a relatively small spatial region. Electrostatic potentials guide the analyte ions from this small spatial region to the entrance aperture of the inlet capillary; during this process, very light ions, especially protons and water-proton complexes, can be filtered out by a mobility filter. | 08-05-2010 |
| 20100224775 | LASER SYSTEM FOR MALDI MASS SPECTROMETRY - Mass spectrometry with lasers generates ions from analyte molecules by matrix assisted laser desorption for a variety of different mass spectrometric analysis procedures. The mass spectrometers with laser systems supply laser light pulses having at least two different pulse durations, and mass spectrometric measuring techniques use the laser light pulses of different durations. The duration of the laser light pulses allows the characteristics of the ionization of the analyte molecules, particularly the occurrence of the ISD (in-source decay) and PSD (post-source decay) types of fragmentation, whose fragment ion spectra supply different kinds of information, to be adapted to the analytic procedure. | 09-09-2010 |
| 20100237238 | PROTEIN SEQUENCING WITH MALDI MASS SPECTROMETRY - In a mass spectrometer, sample ions are produced by using matrix assisted laser desorption with a matrix substance that supports spontaneous, non-ergodic ISD fragmentation and a laser light source with nanosecond light pulses and a multiple spot beam profile. A plurality of individual time-of-flight spectra are recorded from the resulting ions in such a way that amplification of ion signals in the mass spectrometer detector is initially reduced so that only ions with masses near a mass range limit are initially recorded. During the repeated acquisitions of the individual time-of-flight spectra, both the detector amplification and the mass range limit are increased. By these methods, it is possible to evaluate c and z fragment ions in lower mass ranges and to directly read N-terminal sequences from near terminus up to 80 amino acids and beyond, and C-terminal sequences up to more than 60 amino acids. | 09-23-2010 |
| 20100301204 | INTRODUCTION OF IONS INTO KINGDON ION TRAPS - In a Kingdon ion trap in which harmonic ion oscillation in a potential well in a longitudinal direction is completely decoupled from ion oscillation in a direction transverse to the longitudinal direction, ions enter the trap via an entrance tube extending through, but electrically insulated from, one of the Kingdon trap housing electrodes and located outside the minimum of the potential well in the longitudinal direction. The geometry of the Kingdon trap is arranged so that the oscillating ions introduced through the entrance tube cannot return to the entrance tube until they have performed several longitudinal oscillations during which time heavy ions can be introduced into the trap. | 12-02-2010 |
| 20110036974 | GUIDING SPRAY DROPLETS INTO AN INLET CAPILLARY OF A MASS SPECTROMETER - Charged droplets are guided along a defined path from a droplet source to a droplet sink. A focusing pseudopotential distribution generated by audio frequencies on electrodes of a guiding device guide the charged droplets from the droplet source to the droplet sink with low loss. The droplets can be driven along the droplet guide by a gas flow, an axial electric field or a combination of both. For example, charged droplets from a spray capillary of an electrospray ion source at atmospheric pressure may be introduced into the inlet capillary leading to the vacuum system of ion analyzers, a procedure similar to that used up to now in nanoelectrospraying, but with substantially higher flow rates. In the guiding device, the droplets can be manipulated in different ways, for example evaporated down to a desired size. The introduction of small droplets into gas-aspirating capillaries is of interest because it is possible to keep the droplets on axis by Bernoulli focusing and to guide them in large quantities and with low loss through the capillary. The ability to guide the droplets makes it also possible to install a segmented inlet capillary with intermediate pumping, which allows pumping capacity to be saved. Advantageously, the sensitivity of ion analyzers such as mass spectrometers or ion mobility spectrometers by at least one order of magnitude. | 02-17-2011 |
| 20110036978 | INTRODUCTION OF IONS INTO MASS SPECTROMETERS THROUGH LAVAL NOZZLES - Ions entrained in a gas are transported into the vacuum system of an ion user, such as a mass spectrometer, from an ion source located outside the vacuum. The gas and ions pass through a nozzle that connects the ion source to the vacuum system and is shaped to form a supersonic gas jet in a first vacuum chamber of the vacuum system. In the first vacuum chamber, ions entrained in the supersonic gas jet are extracted electrically or magnetically and are collected, for example, by an RF ion funnel and transmitted to the ion user. The supersonic gas jet travels on and, after passing through the first vacuum chamber, the supersonic gas jet is directed into a separate pump chamber out of which the gas is pumped. | 02-17-2011 |
| 20110039350 | HIGH YIELD ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE ION SOURCE FOR ION SPECTROMETERS IN VACUUM - Gaseous analyte molecules are ionized at atmospheric pressure and provided to an inlet capillary of an ion spectrometer vacuum system by passing the ions through a reaction tube that ends in a conical intermediate piece for a gastight and smooth transition into the inlet capillary. The reaction tube is shaped so that the atmospheric pressure gas stream passing therethrough form the entrance of the tune to the intermediate piece is stably laminar. Analyte molecules from gas chromatographs, spray devices or vaporization devices can be introduced into the entrance of the reaction tube and ionized within the tube by single- or multi-photon ionization, by chemical ionization, by reactant ions or by physical ionization. For single- or multi-photon ionization, a beam from a laser can be passed axially down the reaction tube. Reactant ions can be produced by any means outside of the reaction tube and mixed with the analyte molecules within the tube. | 02-17-2011 |
| 20110062322 | HIGH-RESOLUTION ION MOBILITY SPECTROMETRY - A supersonic gas jet having gas molecules with substantially equal velocities is formed by directing the gas through a Laval nozzle into an evacuated chamber. A field barrier having a substantially constant height across a cross-section of the supersonic gas jet is formed by respectively applying potentials U | 03-17-2011 |
| 20110139976 | Method for operating three-dimensional RF ion traps with high ion capture efficiency - In a three-dimensional Paul RF ion trap the ring electrode and end cap electrodes are formed from pairs of pole rods. This multipole rod system is then operated as a linear ion trap with a constant field distribution along the multipole rod system. While the system is operating as a linear ion trap, analyte ions are introduced and stored within the linear ion trap. After the ions have been stored, a single-phase RF voltage is supplied to all rods of a middle segment thus forming a three-dimensional ion trap, thereby collecting the ions in a spherical cloud within this middle segment. The collected analyte ions can then be reacted in the three-dimensional ion trap and the product ions resulting from the reactions can be ejected for mass analysis. | 06-16-2011 |
