Segmented Ion Guide Waveforms for Low-Heating Mass Analysis
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing ion guide technologies face challenges in maintaining ion cooling during transportation, leading to ion loss and inefficiencies in mass analysis, particularly in high vacuum regions where collisions with neutral gas particles are scarce, and they require additional cooling time or higher gas pressures.
Innovation Solution
The development of a charged particle guide with a controlled electric field that uses smoothly varying voltage waveforms to create a potential well, allowing for continuous smooth motion of ions and maintaining them at thermal energy levels, even in low-pressure environments, by applying voltages to axially segmented bunching electrodes to form a pseudo-potential well that translates at a constant velocity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Stability of the object's composition
If ions are transported through a stacked ring ion guide, then radial confinement is achieved, but the ribbed pseudo-potential structure heats the ions and prevents effective cooling
Solution Approach 1:
The ion guide is segmented into multiple rings along the transport axis, with each ring independently controllable. This segmentation allows creation of a smooth pseudo-potential landscape without the ribbed structure of stacked ring guides, eliminating ion heating while maintaining radial confinement through the segmented electrode configuration
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs dynamic voltage control where the DC voltage on each ring segment is modulated at different phases to create a traveling wave potential that smoothly transports ions. This dynamic approach replaces the static ribbed potential with a smooth, time-varying potential that maintains radial confinement without heating ions
2Productivity
If pulsed DC voltages are applied to transport ions, then ion bunching is achieved, but impulse voltages create abrupt electric field changes that accelerate ions and cause spillage into neighboring wells
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies periodic AC voltages modulated at different frequencies to adjacent ring segments, creating a traveling wave pattern that periodically transports ion bunches. This periodic action achieves ion bunching while maintaining smooth voltage transitions that prevent impulse-induced acceleration and spillage
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the voltage parameters (amplitude, frequency, phase) applied to each ring segment to create a controlled traveling wave. By carefully adjusting these parameters, smooth potential gradients are formed that transport ions without abrupt changes, preventing spillage while maintaining bunching efficiency
3Temperature
If additional cooling time is provided in the trap before extraction, then ion cooling is improved, but mass analysis throughput decreases by up to 100 times
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the mechanical cooling process (relying on collisions with neutral gas in a trap) with an electric field-based cooling mechanism. The smoothly varying pseudo-potential created by the segmented ion guide provides continuous cooling during transport, eliminating the need for separate cooling time and maintaining high throughput
Solution Approach 2:
The patent ensures continuous cooling action throughout the ion transport process by maintaining the smoothly varying pseudo-potential along the entire transport path. This continuous cooling eliminates idle cooling time in traps, allowing immediate extraction into the mass analyzer and maintaining high throughput
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach reduces ion heating and maintains ions at thermal energy levels throughout their transport, enhancing the efficiency of mass analysis by eliminating the need for additional cooling and allowing for immediate extraction into a Time-of-Flight analyzer without compromising throughput or increasing gas pressure.
Implementation Method 1
a power supply unit adapted to provide a first supply voltage which changes according to a waveform having a period (T), to axially segmented bunching electrodes amongst the series of electrodes so as to create an electric field within the channel
Implementation Method 2
a power supply unit adapted to provide a second supply voltage to radial confinement electrodes amongst the series of electrodes so as to create a radially confining electric field within the channel configured to radially confine charged particles within the channel
Data Source
AI summary
A device (1) for manipulating charged particles, the device comprising a series of electrodes (2, 3) disposed so as to form a channel for transportation of the charged particles. A power supply unit (5) provides a first supply voltage (7) which changes according to a waveform having a period (T), to axially segmented bunching electrodes (3) to create an electric field within the channel. The potential of the electric field defines a potential well which is translated along the length of the channel such that the potential well is translated a distance substantially equal to its length in an interval of time substantially equal to the period (T). The waveform is substantially continuously smooth throughout its period (T); and, substantially constant in value throughout a finite duration of time (TL<T) within the period (T), corresponding to a minimum of the waveform. A power supply unit (6) provides a second supply voltage (8) to radial confinement electrodes (2) to create a radially confining electric field within the channel configured to radially confine charged particles within the channel.