A method and apparatus for packaging articles in card and blister packages is disclosed, the card and blister package comprising a first or blister piece of clear pre-formed plastic with a shaped cavity for receiving small articles, and a flat flange portion along its perimeter. The peptide sequencing method of the present invention is advantageous in that detection sensitivity of the peptide improves significantly and various daughter ions are detected uniformly, thereby enabling perfect de novo sequencing with tandem mass spectrometry only, without database search. By using a driving situation detection circuit 15, a driving situation of the switching element is monitored based on a relation with a phase of a lamp current which flows through the discharge lamp.