Patent 7459693 was granted and assigned to Bruker on December, 2008 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Disclosed is an improved method and apparatus for transporting ions from a first pressure region in a mass spectrometer to a second pressure region therein. More specifically, the present invention provides a segmented ion funnel for more efficient use in mass spectrometry (particularly with ionization sources) to transport ions from the first pressure region to the second pressure region.