Mevion Medical Systems, Inc.

Ken Yoshiki Franzen

Gerrit Townsend Zwart

Kenneth P Gall

Jan Van Der Laan

Charles D O'Neal, Iii

Michael Busky

Mark R Jones

James Cooley

Stanley J Rosenthal

Tao Li

Mark Robinson

Charles D O'NEAL Iii

Charles D Iii O'NEAL

An example particle therapy system includes: a synchrocyclotron to output a particle beam; a magnet to affect a direction of the particle beam to scan the particle beam across at least part of an irradiation target; scattering material that is configurable to change a spot size of the particle beam, where the scattering material is down-beam of the magnet relative to the synchrocyclotron; and a degrader to change an energy of the beam prior to output of the particle beam to the irradiation target, where the degrader is down-beam of the scattering material relative to the synchrocyclotron.

Particle beam scanning

An example particle accelerator includes the following: a voltage source to provide a radio frequency (RF) voltage to a cavity to accelerate particles from a plasma column, where the cavity has a magnetic field causing particles accelerated from the plasma column to move orbitally within the cavity; an extraction channel to receive the particles accelerated from the plasma column and to output the received particles from the cavity; and a regenerator to provide a magnetic field bump within the cavity to thereby change successive orbits of the particles accelerated from the plasma column so that, eventually, particles output to the extraction channel. The magnetic field is at least 6 Tesla and the magnetic field bump is at most 2 Tesla.

Magnetic field regenerator

An example system includes: a magnet including one or more coils to conduct current to generate a magnetic field, with the magnetic field to affect output of radiation to a target; and one or more actuators, with an actuator among the one or more actuators being at least part of a physical coupling to the one or more coils, and with the actuator being controllable to move the one or more coils via the physical coupling based on movement of the magnet.

Coil positioning system

An example synchrocyclotron includes the following: a voltage source to provide a radio frequency (RF) voltage to a cavity to accelerate particles from a particle source; a coil to receive a variable electrical current and to generate a magnetic field that is at least 4 Tesla to cause the particles to move orbitally within the cavity; and an extraction channel to receive the accelerated particles and to output the received particles from the cavity. The particles that are output from the cavity have an energy that is variable based at least on the variable electrical current applied to the coil.

Particle accelerator that produces charged particles having variable energies

An example particle accelerator includes a coil to provide a magnetic field to a cavity; a particle source to provide a plasma column to the cavity; a voltage source to provide a radio frequency (RF) voltage to the cavity to accelerate particles from the plasma column, where the magnetic field causes particles accelerated from the plasma column to move orbitally within the cavity; an enclosure containing an extraction channel to receive the particles accelerated from the plasma column and to output the received particles from the cavity; and a structure arranged proximate to the extraction channel to change an energy level of the received particles.

Adjusting energy of a particle beam

An example particle accelerator may include the following: a voltage source to sweep a radio frequency (RF) voltage in a cavity to accelerate particles from a plasma column, where the cavity has a magnetic field causing particles accelerated from the plasma column to move orbitally within the cavity, and where the magnetic field has flux that bows at edges of the cavity; a regenerator to provide a magnetic field bump within the cavity to thereby change successive orbits of the particles accelerated from the plasma column so that, eventually, particles output to an extraction point, where the regenerator is located at a radius in the cavity relative to the plasma column; and ferromagnetic arrangements located in the cavity proximate to the radius, where each ferromagnetic arrangement provides a magnetic field bump, and where ferromagnetic arrangements adjacent to the regenerator are separated from the regenerator by a space.

Focusing a particle beam using magnetic field flutter

An example particle accelerator includes the following: a resonant cavity in which particles are accelerated, where the resonant cavity has a background magnetic field having a first shape; and an extraction channel for receiving particles output from the resonant cavity. The extraction channel comprises a series of focusing regions to focus a beam of received particles. At least one of the focusing regions is a focusing element configured to alter a shape of the background magnetic field to a second shape that is substantially opposite to the first shape in the presence of a magnetic field gradient resulting from reduction of the background magnetic field from the resonant cavity to the extraction channel.

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Acton, MA, United States of America

Ken Yoshiki Franzen