T-WAVE DEVICES

Unique Technology for

Advanced MS Capabilities
INT RODUC T ION
Analytical chemists constantly search for better ways to meet
their scientific challenges. To meet their needs, Waters is
dedicated to engineering robust technology platforms that
provide tangible improvements in the performance, versatility,
and simplicity of its mass spectrometers.
A key technological component is the travelling wave (T-Wave™)
ion guide that enables the precise manipulation of ions in a mass
spectrometer in order to enhance sensitivity, selectivity, and
analytical speed.
T-Wave devices enable ions to be contained, moved forwards or
backwards at predefined speeds, focused, trapped, sequentially
released according to m/z, and separated based on their mobility.
Ions can be moved between two or more T-Wave devices if
required. If necessary, a single T-Wave device can perform more
than one function. T-Wave devices add capabilities that transcend
the boundaries of conventional mass spectrometry. They can:
■■ Provide extremely high transmission of ions for unparalleled
MS sensitivity
■■ Significantly improve the performance of scanning quadrupoles
■■ Allow extremely rapid acquisitions of tandem quadrupole
MS/MS data
■■ Rapidly separate ions based on their mobilities
History
The universal need to get a comprehensive set of results in as
short a time as possible is an important driver in the development
of innovative analytical technologies. In recent years this need
has required tandem quadrupole users to run analytical methods
with ever increasing numbers of MS/MS data channels, reducing
the acquisition time of each channel to acquire the data within
the time constraints of an HPLC separation.
Unfortunately, in conventional mass spectrometers, rapid
acquisition of MS/MS data can reduce sensitivity and increase
cross-talk due to the slow transit times of ions through the
gas-filled collision cell.
The problem was compounded by the introduction of the Waters ®
ACQUITY UPLC ® System in 2004, the first UltraPerformance
LC ® System.1 It was immediately adopted by an MS community
already focused on faster and better analytical results. However,
an ACQUITY UPLC System delivers sharp, concentrated peaks
typically less than two seconds wide. This requires the mass
spectrometer to generate data at even greater speeds, and
conventional mass spectrometers simply cannot cope.
The problem was solved by the first commercially available
T-Wave device, the Travelling Wave Ion Guide (TWIG) collision
cell, first seen on the Waters Quattro Premier™ Mass Spectrometer
in 2003.2 Since then T-Wave Technology has found a diverse
range of uses in every Waters mass spectrometer. From the
TriWave ®3 device that allows ion mobility separations to take
place inside a QTof instrument, to the ScanWave™4 device that
enhances the sensitivity of tandem quadrupole MS/MS scans
and, most recently, the StepWave™5 device that increases the
overall sensitivity of a mass spectrometer twenty-five-fold.
T-Wave devices are transforming the capabilities of the modern
laboratory, helping scientists to better unravel the intricacies
of complex chemical and biological systems.
Principles of Operation
The T-Wave device consists of a stacked ring ion guide in which
a sequence of ring-shaped electrodes is arranged, as shown in
Figure 1. Adjacent rings have opposite phases of Radio Frequency
(RF) voltage applied to them, which radially confine the ions
within the device while allowing them to pass unhindered along
the axis.
RF (+)
Ion Ion
Entry Exit
RF (-)
Figure 1. Stacked ring ion guide.
2
A Direct Current (DC) voltage can be applied to a pair of adjacent rings, which produces a potential
barrier within the device that the ions cannot cross, as shown in Figure 2. If this DC potential is stepped
to an adjacent set of rings then the ion barrier effectively moves forward a short distance, causing any
ions in front of it to be propelled forwards. By stepping the ion barrier sequentially along the rings from
one end of the device to the other it behaves as a travelling wave that drives the ions through the device.
The process has been likened to surfers being propelled forward at the front of an ocean wave.

The electrode pairs are grouped in repeat patterns so that at any given time there are multiple waves
passing through the device, as shown in Figure 3.

The speed of the travelling wave determines the residence time of ions in the device and can be
accurately controlled. When filled with argon gas and used as a collision cell, the travelling waves are
able to minimize ion transit times, allowing fast switching experiments with no loss in sensitivity. This
allows the instruments to acquire high quality MS/MS data even when coupled to UPLC ® Technology.

Potential barriers can also be generated in the device with radio frequency (RF) voltages as well as DC
voltages. A particular feature of the RF barrier is that its amplitude is m/z dependent and can be scanned
to provide m/z dependent ion transmission, extending system functionality as in the ScanWave device.4

Figure 2. A three-dimensional
representation of a potential
barrier. Ions in front of the
potential barrier are moved
forward as the barrier is moved
in the direction of the arrows.

15

Effecve 10
Potenal
V* (V)
5 30

20 Axial
0
Posion
2 10 z (mm)
1
0
-1
Radial Posion -2
r (mm)

Figure 3. A sequential series

of travelling waves moves
from left to right through
the device, maximizing the
efficiency of ion transport.

3
In practice, the T-Wave device is constructed with the ring electrodes supported on printed circuit boards
that deliver both the RF and DC voltages, as shown in Figure 4.

When using a conventional collision cell for MRM analyses, increasing the data acquisition rate leads
to reduced sensitivity and increased cross-talk, shown in Figure 5A. Using a T-Wave collision cell,
the sensitivity is maintained, even at high data acquisition rates, as shown in Figure 5B.

Gas In End
Plate
Side
Plate

Printed
Circuit
Boards

Ion Transmission
Aperture
Ring Electrodes

Figure 4. A T-Wave collision cell, showing the ring electrodes

mounted on printed circuit boards for simplicity of construction.

Figure 5. The upper trace (A) shows the reduction in signal seen on a
conventional collision cell as dwell time is reduced from 500 to 10 ms.
The lower trace (B) shows how the signal intensity is maintained when
using a T-Wave collision cell.

Unique Capabilities
The ability to place ion barriers wherever they are needed, at any desired height, and the ability to
remove them, or move them at any desired speed, provides total control of the ions within a Waters
mass spectrometer. Since its inception as an advanced collision cell for tandem mass spectrometry,
T-Wave Technology has been used in a number of creative and innovative ways to enhance the
performance and functionality of Waters mass spectrometers, sometimes adding unique capabilities
not possible by other means. Practical applications of this technology are discussed in the following
documents:
1. ScanWave – Getting Better Full Scan Data from Tandem Quadrupole MS (720004174EN)

2. StepWave – Enhancing MS Sensitivity and Robustness (720004175EN)

3. TriWave – Complete Characterization of Mixtures and Molecules (720004176EN)

4
Further Reading
1. UPLC, An introduction and review, J. Liq. Chromatogr. Rel. Technol., 2005;
28: 1253-1263.

2. Applications of a traveling wave-based radio-frequency only stacked ring

ion guide, Rapid Commun. Mass Spectrom., 2004; 18: 2401-2414.

3. An investigation of the mobility separation of some peptide and protein ions

using a new hybrid quadrupole/traveling wave IMS/oa-ToF instrument,
Int. J. Mass Spectrom., 2007; 261: 1-12.

4. ScanWave: A New Approach to Enhancing Spectral Data on a Tandem

Quadrupole Mass Spectrometer, J. Am. Soc. Mass Spectrom., 2010; 21:
1061-1069.

5. A New Conjoined RF Ion Guide for Enhanced Ion Transmission, Poster

presented at the 58 th ASMS Conference on Mass Spectrometry and Allied
Topics in Salt Lake City, Utah, 2010, Waters Literature No. 720003606en.

Find further reading and animations online:

www.waters.com/wavedevices

Waters, ACQUITY UPLC, TriWave, UPLC, and UltraPerformance

LC are registered trademarks of Waters Corporation. T he Science Waters Corporation
of W hat’s Possible, Quatto Premier, ScanWave, StepWave, 34 Maple Street
and T-Wave are trademarks of Waters Corporation. All other
Milford, MA 01757 U.S.A.
trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
T: 1 508 478 2000
©2012 Waters Corporation. Produced in the U.S.A. F: 1 508 872 1990
April 2012 720004177EN LB-PDF www.waters.com