Design of Lightweight Superconducting Magnets for a Rotating Gantry With Active Shielding

In order to reduce the weight of superconducting magnets used in a rotating gantry for heavy particle radiotherapy, the design study of a cosine-theta superconducting magnet with active shielding was conducted. The superconducting magnet with active shielding was composed of a dipole coil and an active shield coil. The cross-section of each coil was designed, based on a cosine-theta current distribution made by the arrangement of a superconducting wire with NbTi filaments. The result of the design study indicated that the designed coil cross-sections can meet the requirements regarding the magnetic field distribution and the load factor for the magnet operation. Additionally, the weight of the superconducting magnet with active shielding was evaluated while comparing that of the superconducting magnet with an iron yoke. As a result, the superconducting magnet with the active shielding has a possibility to reduce the weight significantly.