There are several variations of the MALDI technology and comparable instruments are today produced for very different purposes, from more academic and analytical, to more industrial and high throughput. The mass spectrometry field has expanded into requiring ultrahigh resolution mass spectrometry such as the FT-ICR instruments as well as more high-throughput instruments. As many MALDI MS instruments can be bought with an interchangeable ionization source (electrospray ionization, MALDI, atmospheric pressure ionization, etc.) the technologies often overlap and many times any soft ionization method could potentially be used. For more variations of soft ionization methods see: Soft laser desorption or Ion source.