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Magnet design for the 10MeV AVF cyclotron accelerator

Article  in  Journal- Korean Physical Society · October 2013

DOI: 10.3938/jkps.63.1347

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Journal of the Korean Physical Society, Vol. 63, No. 7, October 2013, pp. 1347∼1350

Magnet Design for the 10MeV AVF Cyclotron Accelerator

R. Solhju and H. Afarideh∗

Department of Nuclear Engineering & Physics, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran 15875-4413, Iran

M. Ghergherehchi† and J. S. Chai

School of Electronic & Electrical Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon 440-746, Korea

(Received 26 December 2012, in final form 28 May 2013)

In this paper, an azimuthally varying field (AVF) magnet is designed to produce a 10 MeV proton
beam. In order to design and analyze the magnet three-dimensionally, we use the CST program.
Also, field mapping results have been obtained by using the CST program and the MATLAB
program to validate the precision of the design. In addition, an iterative process is conducted for
magnet shimming. The precision of this design is ensured by using the optimization part of CST
to optimize parameters like the number of mesh cells, the boundary dimension, etc.

PACS numbers: 42.30.R, 42.40.Ht, 42.30.Kq

Keywords: Cyclotron, AVF magnet, Magnet design
DOI: 10.3938/jkps.63.1347

I. INTRODUCTION II. MAGNET DESIGN

All the calculations were based on the fact that the

A design study of a 10 MeV cyclotron was started in
March 2012 at Amirkabir University of Technology. The
main purpose of this baby cyclotron is to produce a pro-
ton beam for producing radio isotopes for positron emis-
sion tomography (PET), as well as fluorodeoxyglucose
FDG.
The design study of the 10 MeV cyclotron magnets is
described in this paper. A magnet of this medical accel-
erator is made of steel-1008 with 4 sectors. The lower
part of the magnet is shown in Fig. 1. The diameter and
the height of the magnet are 1.58 m and 0.86 m, respec-
tively and the pole radius is 0.45 m. The top and the
bottom yokes of the magnet have one hole at each valley
for the RF system, vacuum pumps and other subsystem
devices. The maximum field on the mid-plane is 1.93 T.
Other magnet specifications are shown in Table 1.
Three steps were taken to obtain an isochronous mag-
netic field: basic calculations, 3D simulations using the
computerized simulation technique (CST) program [1],
and optimization. One of the advantages of this design
is the optimization of different parameters by sweeping
them one by one. The number of mesh cells, the yoke
width, and the number of ampere-turns are among these
parameters.
∗ E-mail: hafarideh@aut.ac.ir; Fax: +98-21-6649-5519
† E-mail: mitragh@skku.ed; Fax: +82-31-299-4667
-1347-
central magnetic field and RF frequency depend on each
other, so the harmonic number and the RF frequency
were set before the calculations of magnetic rigidity and
the extraction radius. A value of 0.458 T-m for the mag-
net rigidity is needed at the extraction radius where the
proton beam energy is 10 MeV. The RF frequency is set
to 69 MHz, so the central field of the magnet should be
1.1306 T [2]. Also, according to the RF frequency and
the harmonic number, the ion extraction position can
be determined by using an equilibrium-orbit calculation.
Based on these calculations, the particle’s energy should
reach 10 MeV at an extraction radius of 0.40 m.
Low carbon steel, ANSI 1008, was considered to be
the material of the magnet. This material has a higher
saturation point than ANSI 1010, but it is smoother and
may have some difficulties in machining. According to
the saturation point of the material, other parameters,
such as the magnetic field at the hill part, the valley gap,
the hill gap and the return yoke radius, were assumed.
Also, the number of ampere-turns was determined by
using Ampere’s law initially [2] and then by sweeping on
it in the sweep part of the CST for optimization.
The number of mesh cells plays an important role in
the accuracy of the simulation. Figure 2 shows the av-
erage magnetic field at the extraction radius versus the
mesh factor. The intensity of the average magnetic field
does not change for mesh factors higher than 70. This
parameter was investigated at other radii’s and the value
of 80 was finally chosen as the best value for the mesh
-1348- Journal of the Korean Physical Society, Vol. 63, No. 7, October 2013

Table 1. Magnet specification.

parameter value
Maximum energy 10 MeV
Central field 1.1306 T
Number of sectors 4
Pole radius 0.45 m
Extraction radius 0.40 m
Hill angle 50
Hill/valley gap 0.03/0.48 m
RF frequency 69 MHz

Fig. 3. (Color online) Magnetic field error.

Fig. 1. (Color online) Lower part of the magnet.

Fig. 4. (Color online) Average magnetic field along the

radius.

Fig. 2. (Color online) Average magnetic field at the ex-

traction radius versus mesh factor.

factor. Total number of calculated mesh cells was about
2.3 million.
By considering all these calculations and assumptions,
we determined the initial result for the magnetic field
along the radius. As Fig. 4 shows, this result was far
from an isochronous magnetic field, but that can be cor-
rected as follows: A shimming layer with 5-cm height was
designed to match the magnetic field to an isochronous
Fig. 5. (Color online) Field distribution on the symmetry
plane in the hill.
magnetic field by cutting the pole edge centimeter by
centimeter. The surface of the pole was cut to make a
hill gap, which decreased with increasing radius. Then,
the side edge of the pole was corrected by using a hard-
Magnet Design for the 10MeV AVF Cyclotron Accelerator – R. Solhju et al.
Fig. 6. (Color online) Field distribution.
edge model to transform the magnetic field error to the
shape change according to
2π/N
∆η(r) ≈ ∆B(r) · , (1)
BH (r) − BV (r)
where BH (r), BV (r), N and ∆η(r) are the magnetic
fields in the hill and the valley of the magnet, the num-
ber sector and the corresponding sector angle change due
to the magnetic field error ∆B(r), respectively. Here,
the field error was calculated without considering the
frequency imperfection and it was computed directly
from difference between the designed and the isochronous
magnetic field. The process of design correction was fol-
lowed as an iterative process until the magnetic field er-
ror along the radius became lower than 5 G at most
radii. Figure 3 shows the magnetic field error along the
radius for the final correction process. All the diagrams
and error calculations were obtained using the MATLAB
program. Also, the average magnetic field after some it-
eration process is shown in Fig. 4.
III. DESIGN RESULT
The primary size of the magnet was set for a three-
dimensional field computation. Many parameters of the
magnet such as the sector angle, extraction radius and
valley gap, were limited because the RF cavity had been
designed before the magnet. Thus, no need existed at
first to simulate the magnet two-dimensionally.
The first result for the average magnetic field and the
enhanced result after some corrections are clearly shown
in Fig. 4. Before starting the correction process, we car-
ried out a two-dimensional simulation was carried out
to check if the axial field distribution was reasonable or
not. Figure 5 shows the field distribution on the symme-
try plane in the hill. This result proves that the density
of field lines is normal. Also, the field distribution on
the median plane, which is shown in Fig. 6, shows deter-
mines that the maximum magnetic field on the median
plane is 1.93 T.
-1349-
Fig. 7. (Color online) Betatron oscillation.
As the magnet’s design should satisfy a transversal
focusing condition, we carried out an analysis of the par-
ticle’s dynamics after the 3D field computation. The
betatron oscillation, tune diagram and phase shift were
investigated in order to validate the stability of particle’s
trajectory after the correction process. A calculation of
the betatron oscillation was carried out, and the result
is shown in Fig. 7. As expected, the values of the beta-
tron oscillation frequencies are positive and reasonable.
In order to sketch the diagram of these quantities based
on Eqs. 2 and 3 [2], the result of the field computations
in CST were imported to MATLAB:
N2
υr2 = 1 − γ 2 + ·F , (2)
N2 − 1
3N 2
υs2 = γ 2 + ·F . (3)
(N 2 − 1) · (N 2 − 4)
In these equations, F is the flutter of the magnetic field,
N is the number of sectors and is the relative term. The
Flutter is estimated by using
B2 − B2
F ≈ . (4)
8B 2
The diagrams of the phase shift after a correction pro-
cess are shown in Fig. 8. The total phase shift does not
exceed 25 degrees during the entire acceleration, which
indicates a good correction result. The accepted value
for this quantity is about 20 to 45 degrees in currently
constructed cyclotrons [4].
An appropriate magnet design should fulfill an isochro-
nism condition as well as have sufficient transversal fo-
cusing, both of which have been investigated. In addi-
tion, a good magnet structure should avoid, or at least
pass quickly through, any dangerous resonance crossing
during beam acceleration. In order to check the tune
variation of the optimized model, working point of this
-1350-
Fig. 8. (Color online) Total phase shift.
Fig. 9. (Color online) Tune diagram.
model which is shown in Fig. 9. A resonance diagram
for all resonances up to 3rd order with | k | + | l | ≤ 3
View publication stats
Journal of the Korean Physical Society, Vol. 63, No. 7, October 2013
was sketched in the previous figure [5]. Dangerous res-
onances, such as integer (υr = 1, υs = 1), half-integer
(υr = 3/2, υs = 1/2) and linearly coupled resonance (υr
- υs = 1, υr + υs = 2, υr - υs = 0, υr + υs = 1) were
avoided, and the working points were confirmed to be
far from dangerous resonances [6]. If the working points
were near the dangerous resonance lines, the structure of
the magnet would need to be revised and optimized.
IV. CONCLUSION
In this study, a magnetic field error of less than 5 G
was ensured for many radii by using an iteration cor-
rection method. The total phase shift was controlled to
within 25 degree, as well. In addition, we tried to provide
a situation in which working points avoided crossing of
dangerous resonance lines.
The studies above are based on the computed magnetic
field and might be a little different from the studies of
the real model, but these accurate simulation results can
give good estimates for a practical model and can shorten
the manufacture period.
REFERENCES
[1] User’s guide for CST EM STUDIO (2011).
[2] S. Zaremba, CAS, Magnet for cyclotrons (2005).
[3] B. Qin, D. Z. Chen, L. C. Zhao, J. Yang and M. W. Fan,
Nucl. Instr. Meth. Phys. Res. A 620, 121 (2010).
[4] Y. Jongen and S. Zaremba, IBA s.a., Cyclotron magnet
calculation (2006).
[5] H. Wiedemann, Particle Accelerator Physics (Springer,
Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, 2007).
[6] S. Y. Lee, Accelerator physics (World Scientific Co. Pte.
Ltd, 2004).