US 11,786,754 B2
Adaptive aperture
Gerrit Townsend Zwart, Durham, NH (US); Mark R. Jones, Reading, MA (US); Miles S. Wagner, Brookline, MA (US); James Cooley, Andover, MA (US); Eros Pedroni, Brugg (CH); and Robert Silva, Hollis, NH (US)
Assigned to MEVION MEDICAL SYSTEMS, INC., Littleton, MA (US)
Filed by Mevion Medical Systems, Inc., Littleton, MA (US)
Filed on Jan. 3, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/567,544.
Application 17/567,544 is a continuation of application No. 16/999,641, filed on Aug. 21, 2020, granted, now 11,213,697.
Application 16/999,641 is a continuation of application No. 14/937,048, filed on Nov. 10, 2015, granted, now 10,786,689, issued on Sep. 29, 2020.
Prior Publication US 2022/0118284 A1, Apr. 21, 2022
Int. Cl. A61N 5/10 (2006.01)
CPC A61N 5/1036 (2013.01) [A61N 5/1043 (2013.01); A61N 5/1044 (2013.01); A61N 5/1045 (2013.01); A61N 5/1047 (2013.01); A61N 5/1071 (2013.01); A61N 5/1077 (2013.01); A61N 5/1081 (2013.01); A61N 2005/1087 (2013.01); A61N 2005/1095 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A device to trim a particle beam, the device comprising:
a carrier configured to move in a direction into a field that is scanned by the particle beam, the field having two dimensions, the carrier comprising multiple leaves comprised of material to block passage of the particle beam, the multiple leaves being arranged on the carrier to move along with the carrier and being configured to move outward from the carrier in the direction and further into the field, the multiple leaves together defining an edge that is movable into a path of the particle beam such that a first part of the particle beam on a first side of the edge is blocked by the multiple leaves and such that a second part of the particle beam on a second side of the edge is not blocked by the multiple leaves, the multiple leaves being controllable to configure the edge to trim a single spot defined by a cross-section of the particle beam, and the multiple leaves being controllable to configure the edge to trim an area to be covered by multiple spots of the particle beam, the multiple leaves being individually and collectively smaller than the field in each of the two dimensions.
 
11. A particle therapy system comprising:
a particle accelerator to generate a particle beam;
one or more scanning magnets to scan the particle beam relative to an irradiation target in a patient; and
a device to trim the particle beam so that at least part of a spot of the particle beam reaches the irradiation target, the device being between the one or more scanning magnets and the patient, the device comprising:
a carrier configured to move in a direction into a field that is scanned by the particle beam, the field having two dimensions, the carrier comprising multiple leaves comprised of material to block passage of the particle beam, the multiple leaves being arranged on the carrier to move along with the carrier and being configured to move outward from the carrier in the direction and further into the field, the multiple leaves together defining an edge that is movable into a path of the particle beam such that a first part of the particle beam on a first side of the edge is blocked from reaching the patient by the multiple leaves and such that a second part of the particle beam on a second side of the edge is not blocked by the multiple leaves and reaches the irradiation target, the multiple leaves being controllable to define the edge based on a size of the spot independent of other spots of the particle beam, the multiple leaves being individually and collectively smaller than the field in each of the two dimensions.
 
20. A device to trim a particle beam, the device comprising:
a carrier configured to move in a direction into a field that is scanned by the particle beam, the field having two dimensions, the carrier comprising multiple leaves comprised of material to block passage of the particle beam, the multiple leaves being arranged on the carrier to move along with the carrier and being configured to move outward from the carrier in the direction and further into the field, the multiple leaves together defining an edge that is movable into a path of the particle beam such that a first part of the particle beam on a first side of the edge is blocked by the multiple leaves and such that a second part of the particle beam on a second side of the edge is not blocked by the multiple leaves, the multiple leaves being controllable to configure the edge to trim a single spot defined by a cross-section of the particle beam by blocking the first part of the particle beam, the multiple leaves being controllable to configure the edge to perform trimming on an individual spot-by-spot basis during scanning by the particle beam, the multiple leaves being individually and collectively smaller than the field in each of the two dimensions.