The synchrotron and its related technology for ion beam therapy

Hitachi has developed several new technologies for the synchrotron and its related system to realize reliable and flexible operation of a proton therapy system. Especially important among them are a non-resonant RF acceleration cavity using FINEMET core with multiple power feeding and radio frequency driven beam extraction technique (RF-DE) for a synchrotron. Various treatment operations such as variable acceleration energy or respiration gating became possible and simple due to the above technique. For beam transport, a beam steering method for the beam, using transfer matrix realizes quick and precise correction of the beam orbit. A compact microwave ion source has also been developed for the injector to obtain further higher reliability and availability. Most of these technologies are also effective to enhance the reliability and flexibility of other ion beam therapy systems. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.