• 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.