Ruggedized advanced identification mass spectrometer

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9589776-B2
Application number	US-201615070433-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 15, 2016
Priority date	Mar 16, 2015
Publication date	Mar 7, 2017
Grant date	Mar 7, 2017

Abstract

A dual-ionization mass spectrometer includes a first mass spectrometer module forming a hard ionization mass spectrometer, a second mass spectrometer forming a soft ionization mass spectrometer, a vacuum ultraviolet light source positioned between the first and second modules, a housing encompassing the first and second sets of plates and the light source, and an inlet positioned to receive a sample of an analyte and provide it to at least one of the sets of plates. A method of detecting a substance includes receiving a sample of an analyte into a housing through an inlet, performing soft ionization mass spectrometry on the sample with a soft ionization mass spectrometer in the housing, performing hard ionization spectrometry on the sample with a hard ionization spectrometer in the housing if needed, and generating a detection result from at least one of the soft ionization spectrometry and the hard ionization spectrometry.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A dual-ionization mass spectrometer, comprising:
a first mass spectrometer module forming a hard ionization mass spectrometer;
a second mass spectrometer module forming a soft ionization mass spectrometer;
a vacuum ultraviolet light source positioned between the first and second mass spectrometers;
a housing encompassing first and second sets of plates and the light source; and
an inlet positioned to receive a sample of an analyte and provide it to at least one of the first and second modules.

2. The mass spectrometer of claim 1 , wherein the first mass spectrometer module comprises micro-channel plates forming an electron impact ionization.

3. The mass spectrometer of claim 2 , wherein the electron impact ionization mass spectrometer includes two ion detection plates, two ionization plates, a micro ion trap array plate, and an anode.

4. The mass spectrometer of claim 1 , wherein the second mass spectrometer comprises localized micro-vacuum ultraviolet sources forming a photoionization mass spectrometer.

5. The mass spectrometer of claim 4 , wherein the photoionization mass spectrometer includes two ion detection plates, a micro ion trap array plate, and an anode.

6. The mass spectrometer of claim 5 , wherein the micro ion trap array plate includes micromachined posts arranged to align the micro ion trap array plate with ion optic plates.

7. The mass spectrometer of claim 5 , wherein ion traps on the micro ion trap array plate having sidewalls arranged to cause preferential ion ejection.

8. The mass spectrometer of claim 5 , wherein the micro ion trap array plates comprise three electrodes plates, the electrode plates being selectively metallized.

9. The mass spectrometer of claim 1 , further comprising ion optic plates arranged within the first, ionization mass spectrometer module.

10. The mass spectrometer of claim 9 , wherein the ion optic plates comprise arrays of lenses.

11. The mass spectrometer of claim 1 , further comprising spacers between the plates, the spacers arranged to allow for gas conductance.

12. The mass spectrometer of claim 1 , wherein the vacuum ultraviolet source is configured for different wavelengths.

13. The mass spectrometer of claim 1 , wherein the vacuum ultraviolet source comprises a UV LED.

14. A method of detecting a substance comprising:
receiving a sample of an analyte into a housing through an inlet;
performing soft ionization mass spectrometry on the sample with a soft ionization mass spectrometer in the housing;
performing hard ionization spectrometry on the sample with a hard ionization spectrometer in the housing if needed; and
generating a detection result from at least one of the soft ionization spectrometry and the hard ionization spectrometry.

15. The method of claim 14 , further comprising displaying the result.

16. The method of claim 14 , wherein performing soft ionization mass spectrometry comprises performing photoionization.

17. The method of claim 14 , wherein performing hard ionization spectrometry comprises performing electron-impact ionization.

18. The method of claim 14 , wherein the soft ionization mass spectrometry acts as a lead in to allow targeting of the hard ionization mass spectrometry.

19. The method of claim 14 , wherein performing soft ionization mass spectrometry comprises performing mass spectrometry multiple times with different wavelengths.

Assignees

• Stanford Res Inst Int

Inventors

• Chaudhary Ashish
• Van Amerom Friso
• Short R Timothy

Classifications

• H01J49/004 Primary

  Combinations of spectrometers, tandem spectrometers, e.g. MS/MS, MSn · CPC title

• H01J49/107

  Arrangements for using several ion sources · CPC title

• H01J49/0013

  Miniaturised spectrometers, e.g. having smaller than usual scale, integrated conventional components · CPC title

• H01J49/0059

  by a photon beam, photo-dissociation · CPC title

• H01J49/0027 Primary

  Methods for using particle spectrometers · CPC title