Distance of flight spectrometer for MS & simultaneous scanless MS/MS

The method of mass analyzing an ion stream which comprises the steps of:

• trapping ions in an ion storage device;
• applying a longitudinal extraction voltage to the storage device whereby ions having a smaller mass-to-charge ratio travel at a greater velocity than ions of a larger mass-to-charge ratio;
• allowing said ions to travel for a predetermined time in a field free region whereby they travel different distances;
• and
• detecting the ions of different mass-to-charge ratio with detectors which are spaced substantially parallel to the line of travel.

The method of analyzing a stream of ions of different mass-to-charge ratios which compromises the steps of:

• receiving and storing a predetermined number of said ions;
• accelerating said stored ions whereby ions of different mass-to-charge ratios attain different velocities;
• and
• determining the mass-to-charge ratios of said ions by the distance traveled by ions of different mass-to-charge ratio in a predetermined time.

The method of mass analyzing a stream of ions of different mass-to-charge ratios comprising the steps of:

• directing said ion stream to an ion storage means;
• periodically applying an extraction voltage to said storage means to extract ions from said storage means with a velocity that is dependent upon the mass-to-charge ratio of said ions;
• allowing said ions to travel through a field free region;
• and
• detecting said ions with ion detectors spaced to receive ions of different mass-to-charge ratio which have traveled different distances in a predetermined time.

A method of ion detection with a mass spectrometer, comprising:

• accelerating ions from an ion store by applying an extraction field to cause ions of smaller mass-to-charge ratio to accelerate to a greater velocity than ones of larger mass-to-charge ratio form an ion stream that follows a flight path through a field free region,
• laterally accelerating the ion stream within the field free region to reach adjacent ones of separate detectors in a detector array, the separate detectors being spaced from the acceleration region each by respective distances that differ from each other;
• and
• detecting ion intensity with the separate detectors.