VARIABLE WIDTH DIGITAL FILTER FOR TIME-OF-FLIGHT MASS SPECTROMETRY

摘要

A method and system of detecting mass to charge ratio of ions. The method includes producing charged ions in a vacuum, accelerating the charged ions in an electric field into a free flight tube and detecting the charged ions at a detector associated with the free flight tube. A control system selects a bandwidth for filtering a signal produced by the detector and the signal produced by the detector is then filtered with a variable width digital filter based upon the selected bandwidth. The bandwidth for filtering the signal may be selected from a look-up table within the control system based upon the mass to charge ratio of an ion of interest. Alternatively, a peak bandwidth within the signal produced by the detector may be determined and the signal produced by the detector may then be filtered with the variable width digital filter based upon the determined peak bandwidth.