QitToF mass analyzer

The Guardian Explosives Detection Security Portal (Fig. 6) is manufactured and marketed by Syagen Technology, Inc., of Tustin, CA [48], This portal was the result of two research and development efforts that included collaboration between Syagen and Sandia National Laboratories, funded by TSL, and a project at Sandia, funded by DOE [33,49], The detector utilized in the portal is a quadrupole ion trap, time-of-flight (QitTof ) mass analyzer [50,51], The mass analyzer identifies explosives by time-of-flight and mass-to-charge (m/z) ratio, which increases the accuracy of the identification of the explosive. The foundation of the sample collection method in this portal is an air shower [52],... 

A 30-lb field-portable quadrupole ion trap TOF (QitTof) mass spectrometer with an atmospheric photoionization source was constructed [17]. The photoionization source has the ability to choose a narrow-band ionization energy that is sufficiently high to ionize and detect most compounds of interest but low enough to avoid ionization of most common air constituents, such as N2, 02, H20, C02, CO, Ar, etc. Fragmentation is minimal because ionization occurs just above the ionization thresholds, with very little excess energy. The ion trap stores ions from a continuous ionization source followed by pulsed extraction into the TOF mass analyzer. 

The QitTof mass spectrometer has MS" capability. Its mass resolution, m/Am, for mass 181 amu, ranges from 100-200 for a 22-cm flight-path linear TOF analyzer to 400 for a 38-cm coaxial reflectron configuration. 

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