ALEXANDRIA, Va., Oct. 21 -- United States Patent no. 12,444,595, issued on Oct. 14, was assigned to Thermo Finnigan LLC (San Jose, Calif.).
"Ion sources for improved robustness" was invented by Scott T. Quarmby (Round Rock, Texas) and Edward McCauley (Cedar Park, Texas).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A mass spectrometer system includes a vacuum manifold; an ion source positioned within the vacuum manifold for ionizing a sample; a mass analyzer for analyzing sample ions; a high vacuum pump connected to the vacuum manifold operable to maintain the pressure within the vacuum manifold at an operating pressure; and a controller configured to raise the pressure in the ion source to a sputtering pres...