Transient level data acquisition and peak correction for time-of-flight mass spectrometry
AssigneeAgilent Technologies, Inc.
InventorMichael Ugarov
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Methods, apparatus and systems for acquiring spectrometric data from analyte ions implement transient-level data acquisition and peak correction in a time-of-flight mass spectrometer. Transient spectra including analyte peaks and reference mass peaks are recorded, from which a set of averaged peak centroids of the reference masses is generated. The peaks of reference masses in each transient spectrum are compared to the averaged peak centroids. From this comparison, an appropriate correction function is applied to each transient spectrum to correct the positions of the analyte peaks in each transient spectrum. The corrected transient spectra are then summed to obtain a corrected averaged spectrum.
Claims18
A method for correcting spectral data in a time-of-flight mass spectrometer (TOF MS), the method comprising:
- (a) introducing a mixture of analyte ions and one or more reference mass (RM) ions into the TOF MS;
- (b) recording a plurality of transient spectra comprising analyte peaks corresponding to detected analyte ions and one or more RM peaks corresponding to one or more detected RM ions;
- (c) summing the recorded transient spectra to obtain a compound spectrum;
- (d) centroiding the RM peaks of the compound spectrum to obtain a set of averaged peak centroids (APC);
- (e) comparing positions of one or more RM peaks in each recorded transient spectrum to corresponding RM centroids in the APC;
- (f) based on the comparison, applying a correction function to the respective recorded transient spectra to obtain respective corrected transient spectra;
- and
- (g) summing the corrected transient spectra to obtain a corrected averaged spectrum comprising corrected peaks of the analyte ions detected.
A mass spectrometry system, comprising:
- a time-of-flight mass spectrometer comprising an ion detector configured for detecting the arrival of analyte ions and reference mass (RM) ions;
- and
- a system controller comprising:
- a recorder configured for receiving signals from the ion detector corresponding to detection of analyte ions and RM ions, and recording a plurality of transient spectra comprising analyte peaks corresponding to detected analyte ions and one or more RM peaks corresponding to one or more detected RM ions;
- and
- a processor configured for:
- summing the recorded transient spectra to obtain a compound spectrum;
- centroiding the RM peaks of the compound spectrum to obtain a set of averaged peak centroids (APC);
- comparing positions of one or more RM peaks in each recorded transient spectrum to corresponding RM centroids in the APC;
- based on the comparison, applying a correction function to the respective recorded transient spectra to obtain respective corrected transient spectra;
- and
- summing the corrected transient spectra to obtain a corrected averaged spectrum comprising corrected peaks of the analyte ions detected.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.