Automatically standardising spectrometers

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12339249-B2
Application number	US-202017767227-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 6, 2020
Priority date	Oct 7, 2019
Publication date	Jun 24, 2025
Grant date	Jun 24, 2025

Abstract

A method of mass spectrometry is disclosed comprising: a step ( 10 ) of analysing a reference compound in a first mass spectrometer and outputting mass spectral data in response thereto; a step ( 20 ) of analysing the reference compound in a second, different mass spectrometer and outputting mass spectral data in response thereto; and a step ( 30 ) of automatically adjusting an operational parameter, duty cycle (e.g. duty cycle of data acquisition), or acquired spectral data of at least one mass spectrometer such that, for the same (given) consumption of reference compound by the spectrometer, the statistical precision of quantification (the number of detected ions) and/or of mass measurement (the mass resolution) by the mass spectrometer is substantially the same as that of the other mass spectrometer. A similar method of ion mobility spectrometry is disclosed.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method of mass spectrometry comprising:
analysing a reference compound in a first mass spectrometer and outputting mass spectral data in response thereto;
analysing the reference compound in a second, different mass spectrometer and outputting mass spectral data in response thereto; and
adjusting at least one of an operational parameter, duty cycle, or acquired spectral data of one or both of the spectrometers such that, for the same consumption of the reference compound by the spectrometers, the statistical precision of quantification and/or the statistical precision of mass measurement of the spectral data output by the first spectrometer for the reference compound is substantially the same as for the spectral data output by the second spectrometer;
wherein one or both of the spectrometers has a statistical precision of quantification and/or statistical precision of mass measurement that is above a pre-selected desired value when one or both of said spectrometers initially analyse said reference compound; and wherein said step of adjusting is then performed on one or both of said spectrometers until the performance of one or both spectrometers is lowered such that its statistical precision of quantification and/or statistical precision of mass measurement for the reference compound is at said pre-selected desired value.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein said one or both of the spectrometers automatically adjust at least one of said operational parameter, duty cycle, or acquired spectral data so that the statistical precision of quantification and/or the statistical precision of mass measurement of the spectral data output by the first spectrometer for the reference compound is substantially the same as for the spectral data output by the second spectrometer for the reference compound.

3. The method of claim 2 , comprising selecting one or more target criteria for spectral data output by the spectrometers, the one or more target criteria being representative of the desired statistical precision of quantification and/or the statistical precision of mass measurement of the spectral data output by the spectrometers for the reference compound;
performing said step of adjusting at least one of an operational parameter, duty cycle, or acquired spectral data of one or both of the spectrometers until said one or both spectrometers is configured with settings such that they output spectral data having substantially said one or more target criteria; and
setting said one or more spectrometers to operate with said settings when subsequently analysing further analytical samples.

4. The method of claim 1 , comprising determining that one of the spectrometers is not able to provide said pre-selected desired value of statistical precision of quantification and/or statistical precision of mass measurement by adjusting said at least one of an operational parameter, duty cycle, or acquired spectral data of the spectrometers; and in response thereto, determining and/or indicating that this spectrometer should not be used for the subsequent analysis of samples and/or that the spectrometer requires maintenance.

5. The method of claim 1 , comprising selecting said desired statistical precision of quantification and/or the statistical precision of mass measurement for the reference compound as the statistical precision of quantification and/or the statistical precision of mass measurement of one of the spectrometers; and then adjusting at least one of an operational parameter, duty cycle, or acquired spectral data of the other spectrometer until said other spectrometer substantially has said desired statistical precision of quantification and/or the statistical precision of mass measurement for the reference compound.

6. The method of claim 5 , comprising selecting a minimum performance threshold for the statistical precision of quantification and/or the statistical precision of mass measurement of the spectrometers; wherein said step of selecting the desired statistical precision of one of the spectrometers comprises selecting a statistical precision of quantification and/or the statistical precision of mass measurement that is at or above said minimum performance threshold.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the spectrometers analyses the same reference compound at a plurality of time intervals and the mass spectral data from these analyses are compared to each other and/or to reference spectral data so as to determine if the statistical precision of the spectral data output by that spectrometer changes with time; and when it is determined that there is a change in the statistical precision of the spectrometer, the method comprises adjusting said at least one of an operational parameter, duty cycle, or acquired spectral data of that spectrometer so as to change the statistical precision of spectral data output by that spectrometer.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the spectrometers analyse the same reference compound at a plurality of time intervals and the mass spectral data from these analyses are compared to each other and/or to reference spectral data so as to determine if the statistical precisions of the different spectrometers are substantially the same at each of the plurality of time intervals; and when it is determined that the statistical precisions are not the same, the method comprises adjusting said at least one of an operational parameter, duty cycle, or acquired spectral data of at least one of the spectrometers so that they have the same statistical precision.

9. The method of claim 1 , comprising controlling the number of ions of the reference compound arriving at an ion detector of the first spectrometer to be substantially the same as the number of ions of the reference compound arriving at an ion detector of the second spectrometer, for said given consumption of the reference compound, so that the spectrometers have substantially the same quantitative precision.

10. The method of claim 1 , comprising adjusting the mass resolution of at least one of the spectrometers so that the spectrometers have the same mass resolution, for said reference compound; and/or
comprising adjusting the spectral data acquired by at least one of the spectrometers, in a post-processing step, so that the data output from the spectrometers has the same mass resolution, for said reference compound.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein said step of adjusting the mass resolution comprises:
(i) adjusting mass to charge ratios of the ions detected by said at least one of the spectrometers so as to provide data at a lower resolution; or
(ii) perturbing detection times of ions detected by said at least one of the spectrometers so as to provide data at a lower resolution, wherein the spectrometers mass analyse ions based on their time of detection.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein the spectral data is adjusted in the post-processing step by filtering the spectral data so as to provide data at a lower resolution.

13. The method of claim 1 , comprising adding noise, such as ion signal intensity variance, to the spectral data acquired by at least one of the spectrometers, in a post-processing step, so that the spectrometers have the same statistical precision of quantification.

14. The method of any claim 1 , comprising adjusting the duty cycle of data acquisition in one or both of the spectrometers so that the spectrometers have substantially the same statistical precision of quantification and/or mass measurement.

15. The method of claim 1 , comprising adjusting one or more of the following, in one or both

Assignees

• Micromass Ltd

Inventors

• Wildgoose Jason Lee
• Green Martin Raymond
• Richardson Keith
• Kenny Daniel James
• Gordon David
• Whyatt Kate

Classifications

• H01J49/0045 Primary

  characterised by the fragmentation or other specific reaction · CPC title

• H01J49/0036

  Step by step routines describing the handling of the data generated during a measurement · CPC title

• H01J49/0009

  Calibration of the apparatus · CPC title

• G01N27/622

  Ion mobility spectrometry · CPC title

• H01J49/025

  Detectors specially adapted to particle spectrometers (data acquisition H01J49/0036; detectors per se G01T, e.g. G01T1/28, G01T1/29) · CPC title