METHODS FOR OPERATING ELECTROSTATIC TRAP MASS ANALYZERS

• Main Author: McClure, Thomas D
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 27.02.2020
• Subjects: BASIC ELECTRIC ELEMENTS; ELECTRIC DISCHARGE TUBES OR DISCHARGE LAMPS; ELECTRICITY

A method of operating an electrostatic trapping mass analyzer, comprises: (a) operating the electrostatic trapping mass analyzer at a maximum resolution so as to acquire a transient signal; (b) partitioning the transient signal into signal segments; (c) while a quality metric is either less than a pre-determined minimum threshold or greater than a pre-determined maximum threshold value, performing the steps of: (i) defining a test transient as being equal to either a first one of the segments or a previously defined transient with an appended signal segment; (ii) calculating a mathematical transform of the test transient and thereby generating a spectrum of component frequencies; and (iii) determining the quality metric from the spectrum of component frequencies; and (d) setting an instrumental resolution to be employed for subsequent mass spectral data acquisitions in accordance with a length of the most-recently-defined test transient.