Control system for a particle accelerator

摘要

An example particle therapy system includes a particle accelerator to output a particle beam, where the particle accelerator includes: a particle source to provide pulses of ionized plasma to a cavity, where each pulse of the particle source has a pulse width corresponding to a duration of operation of the particle source to produce the corresponding pulse, and where the particle beam is based on the pulses of ionized plasma; and a modulator wheel having different thicknesses, where each thickness extends across a different circumferential length of the modulator wheel, and where the modulator wheel is arranged to receive a precursor to the particle beam and is configured to create a spread-out Bragg peak for the particle beam.

主权项

1. A particle therapy system comprising:
a particle accelerator to output a particle beam, comprising:
a particle source to provide pulses of ionized plasma to a cavity, each pulse of the particle source having a pulse width corresponding to a duration of operation of the particle source to produce the corresponding pulse, the particle beam being based on the pulses of ionized plasma; anda modulator wheel having different thicknesses, each thickness extending across a different circumferential length of the modulator wheel, the modulator wheel being arranged to receive a precursor to the particle beam and configured to create a spread-out Bragg peak for the particle beam; one or more first input/output (I/O) modules operable at a first speed, the one or more first I/O modules being configured to send machine instructions to one or more motor controllers, at least one motor controller for controlling the modulator wheel; one or more second I/O modules operable at a second speed that is greater than the first speed, at least one of the second I/O modules being configured to send machine instructions to the particle source so that pulse widths of the particle source vary with rotational positions of the modulator wheel.