ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 31 -- United States Patent no. 12,592,372, issued on March 31, was assigned to Agilent Technologies Inc. (Santa Clara, Calif.).
"Ion funnel-based collision cell" was invented by Kenneth R. Newton (Santa Clara, Calif.), Tong Chen (Santa Clara, Calif.) and Stephen Zanon (Santa Clara, Calif.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "In some examples, an ion funnel-based collision cell may include an ion funnel entrance section formed by a plurality of adjacently disposed entrance members. Each entrance member of at least one pair of the adjacently disposed entrance members may include a successively larger opening to form a tapered or profiled entrance for ions entering the ion funne...