MASS SPECTROMETER WITH A WIDE DYNAMIC RANGE

摘要

A mass spectrometer with a wide dynamic range, having: - a source (2) of ion beams, - an analyzer (4) for the ion beams generated by said source (2), - a detector (6) for the ions separated by said analyzer (4), - a treatment stage (8) for the analogue signal A generated by said detector, to obtain two separate signals A1 = mA and A2 = nA, where m > n, characterised by comprising: - an analogue/digital converter (10) for converting both said analogue signals A1 and A2 into two numerical values D1 and D2, - a controller (12) which receives both the numerical values D1 and D2 as input, and provides as output a single value equal to D1 if D1 is less than the end-of-scale value of the converter (10), or a value equal to (m/n)D2 if D1 is equal to the end-of-scale value of the converter.