• B. Schlitt, G. Clemente, C.M. Kleffner, M.T. Maier, A. Reiter, W. Vinzenz, H. Vormann
  GSI, Darmstadt
• C. Biscari
  INFN/LNF, Frascati (Roma)
• E. Bressi, M. Pullia, E. Vacchieri, S. Vitulli
  CNAO Foundation, Milan
• A. Pisent, P.A. Posocco, C. Roncolato
  INFN/LNL, Legnaro (PD)

The Centro Nazionale di Adroterapia Oncologica (CNAO) presently under commissioning in Pavia, Italy, will be the first Italian facility for the treatment of deeply seated tumours with proton and carbon ion beams. The CNAO accelerator comprises a 7 MeV/u injector linac and a 400 MeV/u synchrotron. The 216.8 MHz linac is a copy of the linac at the Heidelberg Ion-Beam Therapy Centre (HIT) and consists of a 400 keV/u 4-rod type RFQ and of a 20 MV IH type drift tube linac. In 2004, a collaboration between CNAO and GSI was established for construction and commissioning of the linac. GSI supervised the manufacturing of the linac and of its technical systems, performed copper-plating, assembly, and tuning (together with IAP Frankfurt), and delivered complete beam diagnostics systems. The RFQ was tested at GSI with proton beams together with the BD systems prior to delivery to CNAO. Installation and commissioning in Pavia were performed in collaboration by CNAO, GSI, and INFN. RFQ and thereafter IH linac were successfully commissioned in two steps in 2009, both with (H3)+ and carbon ion beams. The results of the linac commissioning will be reported as well as a comparison to the HIT linac.

• C. Priano, G. Bazzano, D. Bianculli, E. Bressi, I. De Cesaris, M. Pullia
  CNAO Foundation, Milan
• M.C.L. Buzio, R. Chritin, D. Cornuet, J.M. Dutour, L. Vuffray
  CERN, Geneva
• E. Froidefond
  LPSC, Grenoble
• C. Sanelli
  INFN/LNF, Frascati (Roma)

CNAO is a synchrotron accelerator presently under commissioning in Pavia. The aim of this accelerator is to treat tumors with hadrons and to perform advanced clinical and radiobiological research. The CNAO will start treating patients with protons (60-250 MeV range) and carbon ions (120-400 MeV/u range) in three treatment rooms with four beam lines. Future upgrade with gantries is foreseen. This paper describes the design, magnetic measurements and sorting criterion used for the sixteen synchrotron main dipoles and twenty-four quadrupoles. The magnetic measurements results are compared with magnetic simulation.

• G. Franzini, O. Coiro, D. Pellegrini, M. Serio, A. Stella
  INFN/LNF, Frascati (Roma)
• M. Pezzetta, M. Pullia
  CNAO Foundation, Milan

CNAO, the Italian Centre of Oncological Hadrontherapy located in Pavia, is under commissioning and will be soon fully operational. It is based on a synchrotron that can accelerate carbon ions up to 400 MeV/u and protons up to 250 MeV for the treatment of patients. In this paper we present the subsystem, called B-Train, which has the purpose of measuring the magnetic field in a dedicated dipole connected in series with the sixteen dipoles of the synchrotron and to provide instantaneous values of the synchrotron field to the dipole power supply, to the RF, diagnostics and dump bumpers control systems, via optical lines, using a custom communication protocol. In order to measure the magnetic field with the specified precision (0.1G over 1.5T @ 3 T/s), a different approach has been taken with respect to previous versions of the system. The field is obtained by digitizing the voltage induced on a pick-up coil inserted in the gap of the dedicated dipole through a 18 bit, 1.25 Msamples/s ADC and integrating it by numerical methods. This paper describes the final design and features of the B-Train system, as well as the results obtained on the magnetic field readings precision.

• N. Carmignani, C. Biscari, M. Serio
  INFN/LNF, Frascati (Roma)
• G. Balbinot, E. Bressi, M. Caldara, M. Pullia
  CNAO Foundation, Milan
• J. Bosser
  CERN, Geneva
• G. Venchi
  University of Pavia, Pavia

The National Centre for Oncological Hadrontherapy (CNAO) is the first Italian centre for the treatment of patients affected by tumours with proton and carbon ions beams. Its status and commissioning results are presented in this conference in several papers. The synchrotron beam extraction is based on the use of a betatron core. The possibility of using the RF-knockout method as alternative system is being investigated, trying to optimise the performances with the already present hardware and minimum upgrades. A multiparticle tracking program has been written to simulate the beam dynamics during the extraction of the synchrotron, and to optimise the parameters of the radio frequency system. Two types of signals have been studied in order to obtain a constant spill with the minimum ripple: a carrier wave with a frequency and amplitude modulation, and a noise at a given range of frequencies modulated in amplitude. The results of the optimisation and the parameters of the proposed system are presented.