The illustration shows the entire technical system for proton therapy at PSI. After accelleration in the COMET cyclotron, the protons form a beam which is directed by means of electromagnetic switches through the vacuum of the steel-pipe beam line to one of the therapy stations, where they arrive within less than a thousandth of a second.
The core components of CPT’s therapy facilities (hardware and software for control and safety systems) have been developed at PSI. Their maintenance and continued evolution is highly complex and requires specialized engineering knowledge and resources. Thanks to the input of several groups of CPT, the daily and weekly quality insurance checks are performed so as to ensure that proton therapy is safely and effectively administered with the best available hardware and software. Additionally to maintaining and improving the functionality of the hardware, the software has to be upgraded on a regular basis. Specialists continuously develop further and improve the proton delivery technology (discrete spot scanning, line scanning, volumetric scanning).