COMPACT TIME-OF-FLIGHT MASS SPECTROMETER

The invention provides a method of design for a time-of-flight mass spectrometer that is compact and has high mass resolution over a broad range of ion masses. This method of design, for the high-resolution analysis of analyte ions in the time-of-flight mass spectrometer, includes decreasing the strength of the time-dependent extraction potential according to a predetermined continuous function so as to spread out the energy distribution of the ions and achieving high mass resolution over a broad :range of masses without altering the time dependence or magnitude of the applied potentials, across the acceleration region and ion mirror, and the time-dependent extraction potential, and not changing the physical dimensions of the mass spectrometer. Using this method of design, mass resolution of approximately or greater than 10,000 can be achieved over approximately five orders of magnitude of mass for a time-of-flight mass spectrometer having a total overall length of less than 46 cm.