System for collection of data and identification of unknown ion species in an electric field

1. A Method for identification of an unknown item in a sample traveling through an excitation field, the excitation field having varying influence upon mobility behavior of the sample traveling through the excitation field, the method comprising the steps of:

generating a varying excitation field;

subjecting a sample to the excitation field, the sample having field-dependent mobility behavior that reflects field conditions;

subjecting the sample to a plurality of field conditions;

compensating the plurality of field conditions to pass the unknown item through the excitation field;

identifying the unknown item as a member of a known species, the identification being based on known field-dependent mobility behavior of the known species in the compensated plurality of field conditions, and further comprising the steps of;

defining a data store, the store including (i) data identifying a known asymmetric excitation field operating at known field conditions, and (ii) data identifying the known field-dependent mobility behavior for the known species;

generating multiple sets of detection data that associate passing the unknown item through the excitation field with the plurality of field conditions;

comparing the detection data with the data store to identify the unknown species by finding a closest match of the detection data with the data in the data store.

2. A method as in claim 1 wherein the step of generating multiple sets of detection data associated with the unknown item includes the steps of scanning the excitation field at the plurality of field conditions, detecting negative and positive scan spectra, and processing the negative and positive scan spectra as the multiple sets of detection data.

3. A method as in claim 1 wherein the unknown item includes a plurality of unknown items to be identified traveling in a group of items of differing characteristic mobility behavior, further including generating a plurality of data sets for the plurality of unknown items, generating representative curves therefrom, and matching curve characteristics to the data in the data store to identify the plurality of unknown items.

4. A method as in claim 1 comprising the step of calculating a coefficient of field-dependent mobility (alpha data) for the unknown item, and the step of identifying the unknown item includes comparing the calculated alpha data with alpha data in the data store.

5. A method as in claim 4 , wherein the step of identifying the unknown item includes calculating a sign and slope of an alpha curve associated with the alpha data for the unknown item and comparing the sign and slope alpha data in the data store.

6. A method as in claim 1 wherein the step of generating multiple sets of detection data associated with the unknown item comprises:

collecting detection data for at least two different sets of field conditions; and

obtaining at least two sets of detection data associated therewith; and

the step of identifying the unknown item includes,

comparing the sets of detection data with the data store; and

finding a closest match between the at least two sets of detection data with a single known species defined in the data store.

7. A method as in claim 1 wherein the unknown item may be traveling alone or in a group of items of same or differing characteristic mobility behavior.

8. A method as in claim 1 wherein the unknown item is an ion and the excitation field is a periodic asymmetric high strength electric field varying between high and low field conditions, and the system is an ion filter system.