Abstract
This paper summarizes a number of instrumental designs and configurations that have been developed by the Middle Atlantic Mass Spectrometry Laboratory for the miniaturization of time-of-flight mass spectrometers that will be used in environmental, bioagent detection, and diagnostics applications. All are “linear” designs, that is: ions are focused to a detector located within a line-of-sight of the ion source; no reflectrons are used. All are also “dynamic” instruments, using pulsed ion extraction and/or other time-dependent electric fields. These mass analyzers have flight paths of approximately 3 inches, with mass resolutions of up to one part in 1200 and mass ranges over 66 kdaltons. The use of non-homogeneous electric fields is also proposed to further improve that performance. Some examples are given for the analysis of peptides and bacterial spores.
