Scanning system
AssigneeMevion Medical Systems, Inc.
InventorsCharles D. O'Neal, III, Adam C. Molzahn
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An example particle therapy system includes: a particle accelerator to output a beam of charged particles; and a scanning system to scan the beam across at least part of an irradiation target. An example scanning system includes: a scanning magnet to move the beam during scanning; and a control system (i) to control the scanning magnet to produce uninterrupted movement of the beam over at least part of a depth-wise layer of the irradiation target so as to deliver doses of charged particles to the irradiation target; and (ii) to determine, in synchronism with delivery of a dose, information identifying the dose actually delivered at different positions along the depth-wise layer.
Claims30
A synchrocyclotron comprising:
- a voltage source to provide a radio frequency (RF) voltage to a cavity to accelerate particles within the cavity;
- one or more coils to pass electrical current having one of multiple values and to generate a magnetic field in the cavity corresponding to the electrical current;
- magnetic pole pieces at least partly defining the cavity to shape the magnetic field, the magnetic pole pieces comprising ferromagnetic material;
- wherein the synchrocyclotron is configured to enable setting of the electrical current to one of the multiple values, each of the multiple values corresponding to a different energy at which particles are output from the synchrocyclotron;
- and
- wherein the RF voltage is controllable to sweep over different frequency ranges, each different frequency range corresponding to a different energy at which particles are output from the cavity;
- and
- wherein the synchrocyclotron further comprises:
- a variable reactive element comprising a conductive plate that is movable towards or away from a conductor, the variable reactive element for controlling the RF voltage;
- and
- a capacitor having blades configured to rotate in order to mesh and ummesh and thereby change a resonant frequency of the cavity.
A synchrocyclotron comprising:
- a voltage source to provide a radio frequency (RF) voltage to a cavity to accelerate particles from a particle source;
- coils comprising a first set of coils and a second set of coils, the first set of coils to pass a first electrical current, and the second set of coils to pass a second electrical current, the first electrical current being fixed and the second electrical current being changeable to take on one of multiple values, the coils to generate a magnetic field to cause the particles to move orbitally within the cavity;
- an extraction channel to receive the particles from the cavity, and to output the particles from the synchrocyclotron;
- a variable reactive element comprising a conductive plate that is movable towards or away from a conductor, the variable reactive element for controlling the RF voltage to sweep over different frequency ranges within the cavity;
- and
- a capacitor having blades configured to rotate in order to mesh and unmesh and thereby change a resonant frequency of the cavity.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.