This structure consists of three hyperbolic electrodes and one grounded V-shaped electrode. It resembles the quadrupole mass filter, but a V-shaped electrode is used instead of one hyperbolic electrode. Operational principles of this analyzer are similar to the monopole mass filter, as it also utilizes a one-dimensional ion sorting. This new filter represents an intermediate structure between the monopole and quadrupole  mass filters. It combines advantages of both mass spectrometers and does not suffer from their disadvantages: the monopole mass filter usually has lower sensitivity than a quadrupole mass filter, whereas the latter shows a better mass peak shape; the quadrupole mass filter requires high mechanical accuracy and high stability of DC and RF voltages.

Elliptical ion trap