Method of multiplexed analysis using ion mobility spectrometer

2) A method for analyzing an ion beam from a sample introduced into an Ion Mobility Spectrometer comprising the steps of

• a. accumulating ions from the sample in an ion trap having a gate;
• b. generating a pseudo random sequence of a modulation bins;
• c. organizing each modulation bin as a series of submodulation bins, thereby forming an extended pseudo random sequence of submodulation bins wherein each submodulation bin is either a gate open event or a gate closed event, the submodulation bins are of equal duration, and each modulation bin consists of either a gate open event followed by a series of gate closed events, or consists of a series of gate closed events,
• d. releasing the ions in a series of ion packets with a series of gate open events according to the pseudo random sequence of modulation bins wherein each ion packet consists of ions released by a given gate open event, thereby generating an unknown original ion signal vector;
• e. accelerating the accumulated ions of each ion packet released from the ion trap through an Ion Mobility Spectrometer;
• f. detecting the accelerated ions at a detector, wherein ions of sequential packets are intermingled at the detector thereby generating a plurality of ion signal subvectors equal to the number of submodulation bins;
• g. characterizing the sample using the plurality of ion signal subvectors.

4) A method for analyzing an ion beam from a sample introduced into an Ion Mobility Spectrometer interfaced with a Time of Flight Mass Spectrometer comprising the steps of:

• a. accumulating ions from the sample in an ion trap having a gate;
• b. generating a pseudo random sequence of a modulation bins;
• c. organizing each modulation bin as a series of submodulation bins, thereby forming an extended pseudo random sequence of submodulation bins wherein each submodulation bin is either a gate open event or a gate closed event, the submodulation bins are of equal duration, and each modulation bin consists of either a gate open event followed by a series of gate closed events, or consists of a series of gate closed events,
• d. releasing the ions in a series of ion packets with a series of gate open events according to the pseudo random sequence of modulation bins wherein each ion packet consists of ions released by a given gate open event, thereby generating an unknown original ion signal vector;
• e. accelerating the accumulated ions of each ion packet released from the ion trap through an Ion Mobility Spectrometer, thereby intermingling the ions from successive ion packets;
• f. accelerating the ion packets from the Ion Mobility Spectrometer through a time of flight mass spectrometer;
• g. detecting the accelerated ions from the time of flight mass spectrometer at a detector in a series of time of flight bins, wherein ions of sequential packets are intermingled at the detector thereby generating a plurality of ion signal subvectors equal to the number of time of flight bins in each submodulation bin;
• h. characterizing the sample using the plurality of ion signal subvectors.