Method of multiplexed analysis using ion mobility spectrometer

1. A method for analyzing analytes from a sample introduced into a Spectrometer comprising the steps of

a. generating a pseudo random sequence of a modulation bins;

b. organizing each modulation bin as a series of submodulation bins, thereby forming an extended pseudo random sequence of submodulation bins wherein each submodulation bin is either a gate open event, where analyte is being introduced into the spectrometer, or a gate closed event, where analyte is not being introduced into the spectrometer, the submodulation bins are of equal duration, and each modulation bin consists of either a gate open event followed by a series of gate closed events, or consists a series of gate closed events;

c. releasing the analytes in a series of analyte packets into a Spectrometer with a series of gate open events according to the pseudo random sequence of modulation bins wherein each ion packet consists of ions released by a given gate open event, thereby generating an unknown original ion signal vector;

d. detecting the analytes at a detector, wherein analytes of sequential packets are intermingled at the detector thereby generating a plurality of analyte signal subvectors equal to the number of submodulation bins;

e. characterizing the sample using the plurality of analyte signal subvectors.

2. A method for analyzing an ion beam from a sample introduced into an Ion Mobility Spectrometer comprising the steps of

a. accumulating ions from the sample in an ion trap having a gate;

b. generating a pseudo random sequence of a modulation bins;

c. organizing each modulation bin as a series of submodulation bins, thereby forming an extended pseudo random sequence of submodulation bins wherein each submodulation bin is either a gate open event or a gate closed event, the submodulation bins are of equal duration, and each modulation bin consists of either a gate open event followed by a series of gate closed events, or a series of gate closed events;

d. releasing the ions in a series of ion packets with a series of gate open events according to the pseudo random sequence of modulation bins wherein each ion packet consists of ions released by a given gate open event, thereby generating an unknown original ion signal vector;

e. accelerating the accumulated ions of each ion packet released from the ion trap through an Ion Mobility Spectrometer;

f. detecting the accelerated ions at a detector, wherein ions of sequential packets are intermingled at the detector thereby generating a plurality of ion signal subvectors equal to the number of submodulation bins;

g. characterizing the sample using the plurality of ion signal subvectors.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the characterizing step comprises the steps of folding the extended pseudo random sequence of submodulation bins to produce weighed pseudo random sequence wherein the weights account for the accumulation time before each gate open event, generating a weighed matrix from the weighed sequence using a shift register technique, generating an inverse weighed matrix, reconstructing the unknown original ion signal vector by multiplying the inverse matrix by each of the ion signal subvectors and organizing the products into a vector.

4. A method for analyzing an ion beam from a sample introduced into an Ion Mobility Spectrometer interfaced with a Time of Flight Mass Spectrometer comprising the steps of:

a. accumulating ions from the sample in an ion trap having a gate;

b. generating a pseudo random sequence of a modulation bins;

c. organizing each modulation bin as a series of submodulation bins, thereby forming an extended pseudo random sequence of submodulation bins wherein each submodulation bin is either a gate open event or a gate closed event, the submodulation bins are of equal duration, and each modulation bin consists of either a gate open event followed by a series of gate closed events, or a series of gate closed events;

d. releasing the ions in a series of ion packets with a series of gate open events according to the pseudo random sequence of modulation bins wherein each ion packet consists of ions released by a given gate open event, thereby generating an unknown original ion signal vector;

e. accelerating the accumulated ions of each ion packet released from the ion trap through an Ion Mobility Spectrometer, thereby intermingling the ions from successive ion packets;

f. accelerating the ion packets from the Ion Mobility Spectrometer through a time of flight mass spectrometer;

g. detecting the accelerated ions from the time of flight mass spectrometer at a detector in a series of time of flight bins, wherein ions of sequential packets are intermingled at the detector thereby generating a plurality of ion signal subvectors equal to the number of time of flight bins in each submodulation bin;

h. characterizing the sample using the plurality of ion signal subvectors.

5. The method of claim 3 , wherein the characterizing step comprises the steps of folding the extended pseudo random sequence of submodulation bins to produce weighed pseudo random sequence wherein the weights account for the accumulation time before each gate open event, generating a weighed matrix from the weighed sequence using a shift register technique, generating an inverse weighed matrix, reconstructing the unknown original ion signal vector by multiplying the inverse matrix by each of the ion signal subvectors and organizing the products into a vector.

6. The method of claim 1 or 3 , further comprising repeating the accumulating, accelerating, and detecting steps for a plurality of sequences, wherein the accelerated ions travel along a flight path such that flight times of the ions to the detector vary with characteristics of the ions, and wherein the characterizing step comprises recovering a mass spectrum of at least one sequence from the intermingled ions.

7. The method of claim 5 , wherein each sequence defines a scan, and wherein the characterizing step further comprises summing a plurality of scans.