Beam allocation apparatus and beam allocation method for medical particle accelerators

Beam allocation method for medical particle accelerators, the particle accelerator having at least one acceleration region, a transport path and deflection components, by way of which a plurality of treatment rooms, each having a control room, are sequentially supplied with a particle beam comprising ion packets, the beam allocation method comprising the following method steps:

• requesting reservation, by one of the control rooms, of particle beam sovereignty, especially reservation of direct access to a spill abort system of the acceleration region required by all the treatment rooms, for a planned irradiation duration;
• carrying out safety-relevant reservation of the spill abort system by an electronic switching logic of an arbitration unit;
• reporting of the completed reservation to each control room with permission for only control room to carry out beam aborting by means of the spill abort system;
• holding in a state of readiness, for the control rooms, a direct redundant signal path, which is independent of the arbitration unit,leading to the spill abort system of the acceleration system, the switching elements of the control rooms being connected in series,
• it being possible, in the event of simultaneous beam reservation requests from a plurality of control rooms, for the arbitration unit to decide which control room of an irradiation position can make the reservation and,
• it being possible, despite the loss of a reservation, for a spill abort to be initiated from each control room by way of the redundant signal path.