An ionizer 1 including an ionization chamber 10, a sample gas introduction port 14 provided in the ionization chamber 10 for introducing sample gas, an electron beam emitting section 11 which emits an electron beam toward the ionization chamber 10, electron beam passage openings 10a and 10b which are formed on a path of the electron beam emitted from the electron beam emitting section 11 on a wall of the ionization chamber 10 and has a length in a direction of the path longer than a width of a cross section orthogonal to the direction, and an ion outlet 10c provided in the ionization chamber 10 for emitting an ion of the sample gas generated by irradiation with the electron beam, and a mass spectrometer 60 including the ionizer 1.

An apparatus for analyzing peak data generated from mass signals acquired by a mass spectrometric system comprises: a streaming device that comprises a first network interface and is configured to generate peak data from the mass signals or receive peak data generated externally from the mass signals, group the peak data into independently-processable data packets related to a processing task, and distribute the data packets in a task-specific stream via the first network interface onto a network; and at least one analyzing device that comprises a second network interface and is configured to retrieve a data packet of the task-specific stream via the second network interface from the network, perform the processing task on the retrieved data packet to produce result data, package the result data in a result data packet, and distribute the result data packet via the first network interface onto the network.

A mass spectrometer includes: a probe having an electric conductivity; a probe moving unit configured to move the probe; a high voltage application unit configured to apply a high voltage to the probe located at an ion generation position where the tip of the probe is apart from the sample, so as to generate an ion from the sample adhered to the probe, the ion originating from a component in the sample; and a sample holding unit that includes a sample holder having a plurality of concave portions, each configured to hold the sample, and a base configured to hold the sample holder in a removable manner, the base including a mechanical element configured to move the sample holder in order to sequentially move each of the plurality of concave portions of the sample holder to the sample collection position.

A mass spectrometer system comprises: (a) an ion source; (b) a mass filter or a time-of-flight (TOF) ion separator configured to receive a stream of first-generation ions from the ion source; (c) an ion storage device having an ion inlet configured to receive a stream of filtered ions comprising a plurality of ion species from the mass filter or TOF separator and to accumulate the plurality of ion species therein; (d) an ion mobility cell having an ion inlet configured to receive an accumulated batch of ion species from the ion storage device and an ion outlet configured to release, one at a time, the individual ion species therefrom; and (e) a mass analyzer configured to receive and mass analyze each first-generation ion species or each fragment ion species generated by fragmentation or other reaction of the various first-generation ion species.

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.

A system for filtering ions includes first and second surfaces extending along first and second perpendicularly arranged directions, an ion channel between the surfaces configured to receive an ion stream, and first and second electrode arrays associated with the first and second surfaces, respectively. The first and second electrode arrays include a first plurality of electrodes arranged along the first direction and a second plurality of electrodes arranged along the second direction. A controller is configured to apply a first voltage signal to the first plurality of electrodes, which are configured to generate a drive potential traveling along the first direction, and a second voltage signal to the electrode arrays, which are configured to generate an electric potential. The drive and electric potentials are configured to direct ions having mobilities in a first range along a first path and ions having mobilities in a second range along a second path.

A method of ion mobility spectrometry and an ion mobility spectrometer. The method comprises introducing a packet of sample ions into a chamber, the sample ions including an ion for analysis and the chamber housing a drift region and a deflection region. The sample ions are passed on a drift trajectory through the drift region towards the deflection region, wherein the sample ions separate according to their ion mobility as they pass through the drift region. The sample ions received from the drift region are then passed on a deflection trajectory through the deflection region whilst changing the direction of the sample ions on the deflection trajectory to travel towards the same drift region or a further drift region.

A method for multiple transition monitoring of at least one analyte in a sample using a quadrupole mass analyzer is provided and comprises at least one voltage application step, wherein a direct current (DC) voltage and a radio frequency (AC) voltage are applied between two pairs of electrodes of at least one mass filter of the analyzer, wherein the AC voltage has an amplitude V.sub.AC and the DC voltage has an applicable voltage V.sub.DC, wherein a supplementary AC voltage is superimposed on top of the AC and the DC voltage, wherein an amplitude ΔV.sub.DC of the supplementary AC voltage is

[00001]$\le \frac{V_{\mathrm{DC},\max }}{2^{b+1}},$

wherein V.sub.DC,max is a maximum voltage output of the DC voltage and b is a bit size of at least one electronics board of the mass filter of the analyzer; and wherein at least one transition of the analyte is determined with at least one detector of the analyzer.

Method and system for characterising an isolation profile of a mass spectrometer, the method comprising obtaining data of an, or at least one ion species transmitted by a mass spectrometer forming an isolation profile of the mass spectrometer. Normalizing the obtained data. Providing the normalized data to a deep neural network trained using a plurality of previous isolation profiles. Generating from the deep neural network a set of fit parameters of a curve representing a fit to the normalized data. Providing as an output, data representing the curve. The method may also be used as part of a calibration procedure for the mass spectrometer.

A device of detecting a current from a sensor is disclosed. The device includes an integrating circuit including a network of capacitors for providing a gain setting and configured to convert the current to a voltage ramp over a length of integration time, the integrating circuit further including a reset switch configured to connect an input and an output of the network of capacitors; an ADC configured to digitize the voltage ramp into a plurality of voltage samples; and a set of modules including an analyzing module configured to analyze the plurality of voltage samples to determine a slope of the voltage ramp; an outputting module configured to determine a magnitude of the current based on the slope of the voltage ramp and the gain setting; and a reconfiguring module that is configured to reconfigure the network of capacitors and reset the voltage ramp via the reset switch.