Abstract: The invention relates to a measuring cell for an ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometer (FTMS). The invention provides a measuring cell which, on the one hand, consists of two ion-repelling RF grids at the front ends as trapping electrodes and thus produces a pure cyclotron motion of the ions without the usually co-existing magnetron motion and, on the other hand, measures a multiplied cyclotron frequency by means of a plurality of detection electrodes, whereby either a higher mass accuracy or a shorter measuring time can be achieved.

Abstract: The invention relates to an ion guide consisting of RF multipole segments to transfer ions from an ion source into a mass analyzer. The invention consists in having movable RF multipole segments in the ion guide which extend or electrically connect other RF multipole segments along the axis of the ion guide, in which spaces have arisen as a result of a change in configuration of the mass spectrometer, comprising ion source, ion guide and mass analyzer. The moved RF multipole segments bridge the spaces which have arisen between the components of the mass spectrometer and facilitate the transfer of the ions from the ion source to the mass analyzer.

Abstract: The invention relates to a reaction cell for reactions between different types of ion species and a related mass spectrometer to analyze the ion products. The invention consists in an RF-operated straight ion guide with a side inlet, particularly suitable for reactions between positive and negative ion species, one ion species being fed in through the side inlet. Particularly favorable is an ion guide made up of a set of coaxial apertured diaphragms with a slight axial potential gradient. The reactions can be used for a fragmentation of multiply charged protein or peptide ions by electron transfer, or for the removal of excess charges of multiply charged biopolymer ions, for example.

Abstract: The invention describes an ion cyclotron resonance (ICR) mass spectrometer with an ICR trap, the ICR trap having as trapping electrodes two ion reflecting electrode structures operated by RF voltages without any DC voltage. The usual apertured ion trapping electrodes are replaced by multitudes of structural elements, electrically conducting, and repeating spatially in one or two directions of a surface, neighboring structure elements being connected each to different phases of an RF voltage. In the simplest case a grid of parallel wires can be used. The surface of such structures reflects ions of both polarities, if the mass-to-charge ratio of the ions is higher than a threshold.