UW Clinical Neutron Therapy Program CNTS Engineering

UW Clinical Neutron Therapy Program

CNTS Engineering Staff Dave Reid (dreid@uw. edu) Rob Emery Ruedi Risler James Kuan Eric Dorman Stefani Banerian

Outline: Brief Overview of Clinical Neutron Therapy Program Challenges of upgrading to EPICS in a clinical setting How these challenges influenced design decisions

Program Objectives Clinical Neutron Therapy Hospital Based Facility Neutron Therapy Research Particle Beams for Medical Based Isotope Research Neutron Irradiation for Engineering Research

Why Replace Control System? Original equipment no longer supported PDP/11 and RL 02 Z-80 Sub. Controllers and custom I/O Improve system diagnostics, simplify repairs and isolate I/O Improve functionality Automated beam tuning Neutron IMRT Improve operator interface

Design Requirements Standard equipment available from multiple sources Communication protocols based on open industry standards – GPIB, TCP, RS-232, Modbus Visual software toolkit to develop control programs and user interface Proven, well supported design software

Operational Requirements Machine must be available for patient treatments 4 days a week Long Shutdowns not possible Must be able to run beam at the end of the maintenance day Overcome “Operations Inertia”

Control System Design Philosophy Use PC’s running Linux for controllers Locate Analog I/O close to field devices Use Ethernet as fieldbus Distribute Processing Power Isolate Network Traffic Maintain Separate/Independent Safety System Implement by sub-system

Operator Console Dual Operation During Upgrade

Operations Terminal Harmonic Coil A Control

Multiplexed Tuning

Status Display Vacuum System – B Line

CNTS Control System Replacement Outlook 8 Years into project Manpower most limiting factor Linux System Administration intensive Infrastructure in Place – Network, UPS Power, Spare Parts Operator Interface Operational 2. 5 of 7 Major Subsystems Operational