STATUS OF KAERI 6 MeV 9.3 GHz X-BAND ELECTRON LINAC FOR CANCER TREATMENT SYSTEM

The X-band RF linear accelerators (LINAC’s) are popular for medical application due to its compactness [1, 2]. To increase the precision of treatment accuracy under circumstance in which the LINAC is mounted on an apparatus such as gantry frame or robot-arm; this is an advantage as the weight and size are more reduced [3]. It is a 9.3 GHz magnetron with the most readily available RF generator in the X-band frequencies from 8 GHz to 12 GHz and the magnetron is mainly used for the source of the RF power in a compact LINAC. The average power of the magnetron at 9.3~GHz is generally a few MW and this amount could provide a sufficient radiation dose-rate for tumour therapy. KAERI has been developing a new compact 9.3 GHz X-band electron LINAC for a cancer treatment system. The maximum energy of the electron beam is 6 MeV and the average beam power at the tungsten target is about 1 kW. In this paper, we describe the status of development of the 6 MeV X-band LINAC at KAER