In conventional drift tube ion mobility spectrometry, the overall duty cycle is principally limited by the injection of ions into the mobility analyzer. The initial ion pulse must be kept relatively small with respect to the drift time such that the resolving power is not significantly reduced. While multiplexed strategies can improve the sensitivity and duty cycle, peak aliasing still remains problematic.

Over the past few years, trapped ion mobility spectrometry (TIMS) has displayed several attractive features including: (1) rapid gas phase separations on a millisecond timescale, (2) resolving power that can approach ~300, (3) flexibility to tune the separation parameters (resolution vs. separation speed/duty cycle) in accordance with the analytical challenge, and (4) the ability to determine collision cross section values that closely match (within 1-2%) those obtained using drift tube IMS

Here, a new analyzer with an enhanced \ storage capacity is evaluated. This second generation TIMS analyzer features a tunnel region that is approximately double the length compared to the first generation prototype. An increase in the storage space of the new TIMS analyzer was observed by roughly the geometrical factor (2-fold) resulting in a duty cycle of ~60% at a resolving power of ~100.