Abstract
Conventional ion traps have a symmetric design
and are operated to form an equipotential well at the center of the trap
geometry. This structure supports a balanced electrostatic field environment
for ion trapping and scanning to produce mass spectra. However, given the
symmetric equipotential well and the oscillations of the ions within, ions are
ejected from both sides of the trap as the mass ejection forces or RF voltage
is increased. Most Quadruple Ion Trap and
Cylindrical Ion Trap instruments employ internal or external ionization at one
side of the trap and have one ion detector on the opposing side of the trap. The
conventional instrumentation results in the loss of half or more of the mass
sorted ions at the detector, and lost peaks due to the ions being ejected from
both sides of the trap from the equipotential well and the use of one detector.
This ion signal loss is remedied by increasing the instrument duty cycle,
resulting in data summation for mass spectrum generation. While producing
useable mass spectra, this method in theory requires twice the amount of
analysis; analyte and instrument power consumption. This is a significant problem for
miniaturized portable instruments with restricted sampling and power resourcesFIU technology makes use of a
quasi-equipotential well produced by reducing the trapping forces on the ring
electrode nearest the detector. This approach results in nearly all of the mass
sorted ions being directed to the detector, greatly reducing ion signal loss as
well as instrument analyte and power consumption. Mass spectra data is also
more consistent resulting in an increased analysis confidence.Benefit
Increased ion detection efficiency Facilitates more complete sample analysis, improved signal statistics, reduced risk of lost signal data, faster and low power consuming analysis Enables miniature and power limited portable or remote deployable ion trapsMarket Application
All commercial Ion traps
