Particle accelerator having configurable quadrupole assembly

A control arrangement for operating a linear accelerator, comprising:

• a plurality of quadrupole switch assemblies, coupled to a plurality of quadrupoles, respectively, the plurality of quadrupoles being arranged in alternating fashion with a plurality of acceleration stages of the linear accelerator,
• wherein a given quadrupole switch assembly comprises:
• a quadrupole polarity switch circuit, arranged to switch a polarity of a given quadrupole of the plurality of quadrupoles;
• and
• a switch controller, coupled to the quadrupole polarity switch circuit, the switch controller comprising:
• a processor;
• and
• a memory unit coupled to the processor, including a quadrupole switching routine, the quadrupole switching routine operative on the processor to control the quadrupole polarity switch circuit to switch the given quadrupole from a focus configuration to a defocus configuration.

A method of operating an ion implanter, comprising:

• receiving an ion implantation recipe for implementing in the ion implanter, the ion implanter comprising a multi-stage linear accelerator having a plurality of quadrupoles;
• receiving a current quadrupole configuration for the plurality of quadrupoles;
• receiving a current quadrupole voltage profile, comprising a plurality of voltages that are applied to electrodes of the plurality of quadrupoles, respectively;
• and
• adjusting the current quadrupole configuration by sending at least one control signal to one or more quadrupole switch assemblies of the linear accelerator, when the current quadrupole voltage profile exceeds a determined threshold.