BEAM DELIVERY OPTIONS

MEDICAL LINAC MEETING

CERN, 26-27TH OCT, 2017

DR. SUZIE SHEEHY

R O YA L S OC I E T Y U N I V E R S I T Y R E S E A R C H F E L L OW
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
• A brief caveat… I am not a medical linac specialist. I have been asked
to look at “beam delivery options including rastering and scanning”.

• T h i s p re s e n t a t i o n i s t h e re s u l t o f a b r i e f l i t e r a t u re re v i e w a n d s o m e
re a d i n g ( a n d t h e o c c a s i o n a l Yo u Tu b e v i d e o ) .

FOCUSING BENDING BEAM SHAPING

Maintaining high quality Achromatic or other bending Collimation,

electron beam characteristics system towards the target or scattering etc…
throughout the linac directly to patient

SIMPLIFY REDUCE MODULARITY

What can be What can we Which parts could be
made simpler? take out? made modular?
 FOCUSING BENDING
COILS SYSTEM
CORRECTORS
IMAGE FROM VARIAN ON YOUTUBE:
https://youtu.be/jSgnWfbEx1A
FOCUSING MAGNETS BENDING MAGNETS
• Ke eps th e beam c on tr o l l e d th ro u g h • B r i ng th e b ea m a r ou n d to th e p at ie nt
the main linac body • D i ff e r e n t c o m p a n i e s a t p r e s e n t u s e d i ff e r e n t

• In main linac section there are also focusing systems

a number of steering magnets • K e ep i ng th e wh o le s yst em c om p act can b e

achieved by thinking carefully about this
• Sh oul d be k ept f air l y s im p l e i n te rm s
part
of beam dynamics
 BENDING OPTIONS
90 DEGREES 2 7 0 D E G R E E A C H R O M AT
Directs beam straight Pros:
round onto patient • achromat means the
beam is transported to a
Pros: point onto the target for
• compact all energies
• simple • (Anecdotally, these
machines don’t need re-
Cons: tuning as often <- ??)
• doesn’t focus the beam
to a point Cons:
• chromatic - i.e. probably • needs a 270 degree
not suitable in terms of bending magnet - which
beam quality can be quite strong/large
• retuning a lot?)
11 2 .5 D E GR E E ‘S LA LOM ’ B E N D
(Used in Varian linacs)
Pros:
• makes the overall
treatment head lower to
the isocentre
• maintains achromatic
condition (I presume)
Cons:
• is larger (length-wise)
than other options
• (Anecdotally, needs
 Final bends…

From US Patent US3867635 A, 1973

4389572 A, 1981
Lapsed

H. A .Enge invented a bend system, but in patents it’s said ‘system

would be difficult to manufacture and requires very accurate field
mapping and shimming.’
http://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/1.1718372
Why does the beam have to be precise in angle
& position? <— Field flatness.
 CAN WE REMOVE ANYTHING?

SOURCE
• One option might be to remove the bending system all
together so the LINAC is mounted directly in line with
where the beam needs to go? (This is how it is done LINAC
in smaller (low energy) machines, so depends on the
energy we require.)
• However, I suspect this part of the system is fairly TARGET/
ROBUST already and is unlikely to be a point of failure SHAPING

• Apparently, some of these linacs are designed assuming NO

FOCUSING, so the beam just blows up as it transmits
through to the bending system. (Watnbersie, 1994)

SOURCE LINAC
BEND
So if we go for a ‘no-bend’ solution, we still need focusing and steerers

• Usually solenoids are used, can be placed around the accelerating structure
 So if we go for a ‘no-bend’ solution, we still need focusing and steerers

• Could we use permanent magnet quads instead? (Need space? Temperature

dependent)
• If sufficiently short linac, can just have focusing prior to the linac and transport
through (e.g.) 3 GHz structure without loss. [CAS notes, pp.29]

Consider ‘Halbach’ style permanent magnets?

Either quads or solenoid configuration.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ S. Brooks. BNL

article/pii/S0168900217306617

See ‘Designing permanent magnet solenoids’

http://www.fieldp.com/documents/pmsolenoid.pdf
 Correctors/steerers

• People have developed printed circuit steering magnets (no remnant

field, good in tight spaces).
• Can also be installed on inside of PMs to provide field adjustment.

We can’t do without steerers if the LINAC rotates (due to B_Earth!), but

they can probably be made robust and easily replaceable. Automatic
feedback can be used to make sure position is very stable.
 THOUGHTS/QUESTIONS

E M I T TA N C E G R O W T H BEAM SCANNING?

“The initial emittance is determined by the electron I was asked to look at rastering/
gun but subsequent elements in the focusing and scanning options, however most
acceleration systems produce effects which radiotherapy linacs seem to just use
substantially increase the emittance. Factors between shaping/collimation with a broad beam.
10 and 100 are not unusual” - pp. 29 CAS notes
What is the emittance at the source? We should aim Could the beam be ‘rastered’ instead?
to remove as many components as possible, if we
can.
Need to study beam dynamics of proposed
linac structures to see losses.

W AT E R C O O L I N G & E L E C T R O M A G N E T S

The electromagnets used are often water cooled. We

should aim to remove this complexity.
Permanent magnets may offer another option (cheap,
easy to maintain, no power required), but the fields are
temperature dependent and the fields have less
flexibility compared to electromagnets
• Need to study the error tolerances of beam
dynamics with permanent magnets in
potentially large temperature fluctuations.
 REFERENCES

L I N E A R A C C E L E R AT O R S F O R R A D I O T H E R A P Y

2ND ED, D. GREENE AND P C WILLIAMS, MEDICAL SCIENCE SERIES, IOP PUBLISHING, 1997

T R E AT M E N T M A C H I N E S F O R E X T E R N A L B E A M R A D I O T H E R A P Y

E B PODGORSAK, http://www-naweb.iaea.org/nahu/DMRP/documents/Chapter5.pdf

M E D I C A L A P P L I C AT I O N S O F E L E C T R O N L I N E A R A C C E L E R AT O R S

A. WATNBERSIE AND R.A. GAHBAUER, IN PROCEEDINGS OF CERN ACCELERATOR SCHOOL ON

CYCLOTRONS, LINACS AND THEIR APPLICATIONS, BELGIUM, 1994, pp.229.