Progress Toward TURBO: A Novel Beam Delivery System for Charged Particle Therapy

Abstract

TURBO – Technology for Ultra Rapid Beam Operation – is a novel beam delivery system (BDS) in development at the University of Melbourne. The BDS determines several aspects of treatment delivery where a key bottleneck is the deadtime associated with beam energy variation. Beamlines at treatment facilities have a ±1% momentum acceptance range, requiring all the magnetic fields to adjust to deliver different energy beams at multiple depths in the tumour volume. A BDS using Fixed Field Alternating Gradient (FFA) optics could reduce the energy layer switching time (ELST) by enabling the transport of a large range of beam energies within the same fixed fields. We present recent progress and ongoing developments with TURBO, a proof-of-concept demonstrator adapted for low energy protons. Characterisation measurements were performed to determine realistic parameters for beam transport and particle tracking modelling. Simulation and experimental studies are shown for an energy degrader. We mention considerations of canted-cosine-theta magnets and further work to explore the clinical feasibility of a scaled-up BDS for charged particle therapy.