Dielectric Wall Accelerator

The Dielectric Wall Accelerator (DWA) is a new proton accelerator designed at UC Berkeley managed Lawrence Livermore National Lab LLNL ,a DOE National lab and UC Davis Cancer center or UC Davis Crocker Nuclear Lab. It is designed to produce medical grade protons for use as radiation therapy.

Why a DWA is needed

The DWA addresses the main issues with the current proton therapy system—cost and size. Current proton cyclotrons (accelerators)cost $US180 million. These units are the size of a football field.

Types of External Beam Radiotherapy

The older type of radiotherapy is called x-ray, electron, gamma-rayor cobalt-60.
Charged Particles are superior to x-ray therapy

The current proton system is superior to the 100-year-old x-ray system known as IMRT. IMRT uses an indirect ionization of water in the cell to produce free radicals. These react chemically with the cell destroying single strands of the dual strand DNA.

Protons are many time heavier than electrons which makes them easier to control and allows them to more precisely target a tumor. Protons are charged particles and are accelerated to a predetermined (MeV) level which, using the bragg peak delivers the energy directly within 1–2 mm inside the tumor and stops. IMRT photons primarily indirectly ionizes the single strand DNA nuecleotide using the free radical method to disrupt cell life. Tumors are notorious for having a poor blood supply called cell (hypoxia). This requires the use of drugs to oxygenate the tumor. Since the tumor is fast growing it has a poor blood supply meaning any drugs directed at them will have difficulty getting to them.
The system is a spinoff of a DOE device to inspect nuclear weapons.

This system requires several new advances because of the high energies. A high gradient insulator [1] patent # 6,331,194. A SiC switch about 5,000+ are needed. A Symmetric Blumlein, typical width 1mm.

"A linac technology to accelerate protons to 100 MeV in 1 m is being developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Originally developed for x-ray radiography to image explosives, the so-called dielectric wall accelerator generates a pulsed electric field that lasts a few nanoseconds. That proton-accelerating field propagates along an insulating wall at a controlled rate, says LLNL physicist George Caporaso. Compact Particle Acceleration Corp has licensed the technology and is now funding its development for proton therapy. Because the DWA is a pulsed linac, “it is easy to control not only the beam’s intensity but also its spot size and beam width,” says CPAC president Thomas Mackie. Commercial DWA systems are still in early development."[1]

References

^ http://scitation.aip.org/journals/doc/PHTOAD-ft/vol_62/iss_3/22_1.shtml?bypassSSO=1

External links

Dielectric Wall Accelerator