An ion optic assembly includes a set of conductive rods, a first insulator, and a second insulator. The rods are inserted into through-holes of the first insulator, which are arranged about an axis along which the rods are elongated. The rods are then inserted through a bore of the second insulator and become located in notches of the bore, which are arranged about the axis. Accordingly, the first insulator positions one end of the rods at a first distance from the axis, and the second insulator positions the other end of the rods at a second distance from the axis, which may equal to or different from the first distance. The rods contact, and may be spring-biased against, the notches. The assembly may include an electrical contact with fingers spring-biased into contact with the rods. Each insulator may include both through-holes and notches for additional rods.

Methods and apparatus are disclosed for producing a filament assembly with a flat frame. A frame holder is mounted to a lathe and a filament applicator is to the tool holder of the lathe. The applicator is movable along the lathe axis while the frame is rotated so that filament is wound around flat frame in a series of parallel passes. A spool of filament is rotatably supported on the applicator. The filament is guided through a filament path, and a tension control device applies tension to the filament.

An apparatus is disclosed including a tool comprising a first device for generating aerosol from a target, the first device being deployed through an opening in a tubing of the tool, wherein the tubing is provided with aspiration ports or fenestrations such that the generated aerosol is aspirated into the tubing via the aspiration ports or fenestrations. The aspirated aerosol is then transferred to a mass spectrometer for subsequent mass analysis.

A laser desorption/ionization method, includes: a first step of preparing a sample support body including a substrate on which a plurality of through holes opening to a first surface and a second surface facing each other are formed, and a conductive layer provided on at least the first surface; a second step of introducing a sample and a solvent having refractoriness in a vacuum into the plurality of through holes; and a third step of ionizing a component of the sample by irradiating the first surface with laser beam while applying a voltage to the conductive layer.

There is provided a method of guiding ions, comprising providing an ion guide comprising a plurality of electrodes, confining ions radially within said ion guide by applying one or more voltages to said plurality of electrodes, applying an orthogonal DC field along at least a portion of said ion guide in order to control the temperature of ions as they travel through said ion guide, and applying an electrostatic driving potential to said plurality of electrodes to urge ions along the axial length of the ion guide, wherein said electrostatic driving potential is applied in the form of a DC travelling wave potential or other transient DC potential.

A method is disclosed comprising obtaining or acquiring chemical or other non-mass spectrometric data from one or more regions of a target (2) using a chemical sensor (20). The chemical or other non-mass spectrometric data may be used to determine one or more regions of interest of the target (2). An ambient ionisation ion source 1 may then be used to generate aerosol, smoke or vapour (5) from one or more regions of the target (2).

A method of manufacture for a ion mobility filter is disclosed. The method of manufacturing an ion filter for a spectrometry system includes providing a sheet of conductive material and defining a plurality of ion filters on the sheet. The definition of the plurality of ion filters is achieved by forming an electrode layer for each ion filter on the sheet, where each electrode layer comprises at least one ion channel and an isolation channel surrounding the at least one ion channel. A support layer on each electrode layer is also formed. Each support layer comprises an aperture at least partially aligned with the at least one ion channel. The ion filter is then separated. The risk of contaminants entering the at least one ion channel when separating the ion filters is reduced by surrounding the at least one ion channel with the isolation channel.

An apparatus for performing ambient ionisation mass and/or ion mobility spectrometry is disclosed. The apparatus comprises a substantially cylindrical, tubular, rod-shaped, coil-shaped, helical or spiral-shaped collision assembly; and a first device arranged and adapted to direct analyte, smoke, fumes, liquid, gas, surgical smoke, aerosol or vapour onto said collision assembly.

A constructed unit is fixed to a base by means of a plurality of support posts while being spaced from the base. The constructed unit includes an orthogonal acceleration unit. An incidence regulator unit is fixed to the base by a pair of support posts while being spaced from the base and the constructed unit. The incidence regulator unit includes, among others, a pair of blades that define a slit, and heaters for heating the pair of blades.

A method of manufacturing a multipole device includes the steps of: (a) forming an intermediate device by assembling a plurality of components including a plurality of precursor multipole electrodes, wherein the plurality of precursor multipole electrodes in the assembled device extend along and are distributed around a central axis; (b) forming a multipole device from the intermediate device by machining the precursor multipole electrodes within the intermediate device to provide a plurality of multipole electrodes having a predetermined spatial relationship; wherein a first component of the multipole device that includes a multipole electrode is attached non-permanently to a second component of the multipole device, the first component including a first alignment formation, and the second component including a second alignment portion configured to engage with the first alignment formation on the first component so as to facilitate alignment of the first component and the second component when the first component and the second component are attached, thereby allowing the first component to be detached from and then reattached to the second component while retaining the predetermined spatial relationship between the plurality of multipole electrodes.