High performance ion mobility spectrometer apparatus and methods

1. An ion mobility spectrometer apparatus, comprising:

an ionization source ionizing a sample that contains a least one component in front of an ion gate;

a drift tube that has a drift axis along which ions are separated;

a cross drift flow substantially in a direction that is greater than zero but less than one hundred and eighty degrees from the drift axis.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the cross drift flow is applied to different segments and/or regions of the drift tube.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the cross drift flow is combined with a counter or uni-direction flow.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprises at least one chemical modifier that is added to the cross drift flow.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 , wherein the component can be impurities and/or interferences.

6. The apparatus of claim 4 , wherein one chemical modifier is applied to a specific segment and/or region of the drift tube by way of the cross drift flow and a second chemical modifier is applied to a specific segment and/or region of the drift tube by way of the cross drift flow.

7. A separation method, comprising:

ionizing a sample with at least one component;

providing the sample to an ion mobility based spectrometer with greater than or equal to, two drift segments separated by an ion gate between the drift segments;

transporting the ionized sample as a ion packet along a drift axis; and

pre-separating the ion packet in one of the drift segments prior to further separation in other separation segments.

8. The separation method of claim 7 , further comprises; adding at least one chemical modifier to a drift gas flow that is in a direction to that of the drift axis of the ions that is between greater than 0 degrees to less than 180 degrees.