Optimized Matching of Beam Emittance and Collimation System to Maximize Transmission Through Beamline

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This invention introduces a method and system for optimizing the design of a beam collimation setup in cyclotron-based particle therapy (such as proton or ion beam cancer therapy). By using two specifically designed asymmetric collimators—one for beam size and one for beam divergence—the invention enables the transmission of particle beams with higher emittance (i.e., more particles), particularly at lower energies, without sacrificing the symmetry of the emittance required for effective therapy. This increases the amount of usable beam delivered for treatment, reducing treatment times and improving efficiency.

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• Enhanced proton or ion beam therapy systems for cancer treatment, especially for addressing moving tumors or requiring high intensity beams.
• Implementation in new or retrofit cyclotron-based medical particle therapy facilities to improve treatment efficiency and throughput.
• Development of higher-performance energy selection systems (ESS) in research or clinical settings that require precise and efficient particle beam delivery.
• Integration with motion mitigation approaches in FLASH therapy or other advanced radiotherapy techniques.

BenefitsContent extracted from patent full text and abstract with AI.

• Significantly increases the beam transmission at lower energies, leading to shorter treatment times and the possibility of treating moving tumors more effectively.
• Improves patient throughput in therapy centers, which can help reduce operational costs and waiting times.
• Can be retrofitted to existing beamlines with minimal changes, making it a practical upgrade option.
• Provides flexible collimator designs (including fixed and multi-leaf configurable types) to meet various therapy and operational needs.
• Maintains symmetric emittance in both planes, ensuring gantry angle-independent beam delivery for more uniform and predictable treatments.
• Reduces energy-dependent losses in the beamline, allowing for more efficient use of the generated particle beams.

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Patent Abstract

The present invention provides a method to design a beam collimation system for cyclotron-based particle therapy beamline. This method provides the specifications of two asymmetric collimators, which allow transporting larger emittance through beamline while having symmetric emittance in both planes but with different beam sizes and different divergences in both planes. The first asymmetric collimator selects an asymmetric beam size and the second collimator selects an asymmetric beam divergence in both planes. The aperture of the second collimator depends on the aperture of the first collimator. This arrangement allows transporting larger emittance through beamline for lower energy, with the goal of achieving higher beam current transmission compared to the prior art. Preferably, this collimator system is integrated after the energy degrader but it is possible to use a similar collimation system at any location along the beamline. These collimators can be multileaf or fixed aperture collimators.