Patents by Inventor Kazuo Hiramoto

Kazuo Hiramoto has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 7060997
    Abstract: A particle therapy system is provided which can simply and quickly correct a beam orbit. In a particle therapy system provided with an irradiation facility comprising a first beam transport system for receiving a beam and transporting the beam to the patient side, and an irradiation nozzle for forming an irradiation field of the beam, the particle therapy system comprises first beam position monitors for detecting a position upstream of the irradiation nozzle at which the beam passes, second beam position monitors for detecting a position downstream of the irradiation nozzle at which the charged-particle beam passes, and first and second steering magnets. Correction bending amounts for causing the beam to be coincident with a predetermined orbit after the correction are determined in accordance with detected results from the first and second beam position monitors, and first and second steering magnets are excited under control so that the determined correction bending amounts are obtained.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 21, 2005
    Date of Patent: June 13, 2006
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Tetsuro Norimine, Masumi Umezawa, Kazuo Hiramoto
  • Publication number: 20060076515
    Abstract: To ensure irradiation accuracy and safety, even when an irradiation device employing a different irradiation method is used, disclosed is herein a charged particle beam irradiation apparatus that irradiates an irradiation target with charged particle beams includes: a charged particle beam generator for generating the charged particle beams; a passive scattering irradiation device and a scanning irradiation device, both for irradiating the irradiation target with the charged particle beams; a beam transport system for transporting the charged particles beam extracted from the charged particle beam generator, to selected one of the two irradiation devices; and a central controller that modifies operating parameters on the charged particle beam generator, according to the irradiation method adopted for the selected irradiation device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 30, 2005
    Publication date: April 13, 2006
    Inventors: Koji Matsuda, Kazuo Hiramoto, Kunio Moriyama
  • Publication number: 20060065855
    Abstract: A particle beam irradiation system which can increase an availability factor. An ion beam extracted from one proton beam linac is bent at 90 degrees by a switching magnet and is introduced to RI production equipment through a beam line. In the RI production equipment, a RI is produced using the introduced ion beam. An ion beam extracted from the other proton beam linac is bent at 90 degrees by the switching magnet and is introduced to a synchrotron through a beam line. The ion beam extracted from the synchrotron is irradiated to a patient from irradiation equipment. If one proton beam linac comes into an abnormal state, the one proton beam linac is stopped in operation and checked. During the check, the ion beam extracted from the other proton beam linac is selectively introduced to the RI production equipment and the synchrotron by the switching magnet.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 18, 2005
    Publication date: March 30, 2006
    Inventors: Shunji Kakiuchi, Akiko Kakiuchi, Kikuo Umegaki, Kazuo Hiramoto
  • Publication number: 20050247890
    Abstract: A particle therapy system is provided which can simply and quickly correct a beam orbit. In a particle therapy system provided with an irradiation facility comprising a first beam transport system for receiving a beam and transporting the beam to the patient side, and an irradiation nozzle for forming an irradiation field of the beam, the particle therapy system comprises first beam position monitors for detecting a position upstream of the irradiation nozzle at which the beam passes, second beam position monitors for detecting a position downstream of the irradiation nozzle at which the charged-particle beam passes, and first and second steering magnets. Correction bending amounts for causing the beam to be coincident with a predetermined orbit after the correction are determined in accordance with detected results from the first and second beam position monitors, and first and second steering magnets are excited under control so that the determined correction bending amounts are obtained.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 21, 2005
    Publication date: November 10, 2005
    Inventors: Tetsuro Norimine, Masumi Umezawa, Kazuo Hiramoto
  • Patent number: 6936832
    Abstract: A particle therapy system is provided which can simply and quickly correct a beam orbit. In a particle therapy system provided with an irradiation facility comprising a first beam transport system for receiving a beam and transporting the beam to the patient side, and an irradiation nozzle for forming an irradiation field of the beam, the particle therapy system comprises first beam position monitors for detecting a position upstream of the irradiation nozzle at which the beam passes, second beam position monitors for detecting a position downstream of the irradiation nozzle at which the charged-particle beam passes, and first and second steering magnets. Correction bending amounts for causing the beam to be coincident with a predetermined orbit after the correction are determined in accordance with detected results from the first and second beam position monitors, and first and second steering magnets are excited under control so that the determined correction bending amounts are obtained.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 22, 2004
    Date of Patent: August 30, 2005
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Tetsuro Norimine, Masumi Umezawa, Kazuo Hiramoto
  • Patent number: 6903351
    Abstract: A power supply for applying a voltage to a scanning electromagnet for deflecting a charged particle beam has a first power supply unit having no filter and a second power supply unit having a filter. When an irradiation position of the charged particle beam in an irradiation object is moved, the first power supply unit, namely a power supply unit having no filter, is used to apply the voltage to the scanning electromagnet, so that an exciting current flowing in the scanning electromagnet can be changed in a short time. Further, when the irradiation position of the charged particle beam is maintained, the second power supply is used to apply a voltage whose pulsating component was removed to the scanning electromagnet, so that the exciting current flowing in the scanning electromagnet can be controlled precisely. Consequently, the charged particle beam can be applied uniformly to the irradiation object and an irradiation time of the charged particle beam to the irradiation object can be curtailed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 27, 1999
    Date of Patent: June 7, 2005
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Hiroshi Akiyama, Hiroshi Kubo, Kazuo Hiramoto
  • Patent number: 6900446
    Abstract: A power supply for applying a voltage to a scanning electromagnet for deflecting a charged particle beam has a first power supply unit having no filter and a second power supply unit having a filter. When an irradiation position of the charged particle beam in an irradiation object is moved, the first power supply unit, namely a power supply unit having no filter, is used to apply the voltage to the scanning electromagnet, so that an exciting current flowing in the scanning electromagnet can be changed in a short time. Further, when the irradiation position of the charged particle beam is maintained, the second power supply is used to apply a voltage whose pulsating component was removed to the scanning electromagnet, so that the exciting current flowing in the scanning electromagnet can be controlled precisely. Consequently, the charged particle beam can be applied uniformly to the irradiation object and an irradiation time of the charged particle beam to the irradiation object can be curtailed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 5, 2002
    Date of Patent: May 31, 2005
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Hiroshi Akiyama, Hiroshi Kubo, Kazuo Hiramoto
  • Patent number: 6881970
    Abstract: A power supply for applying a voltage to a scanning electromagnet for deflecting a charged particle beam has a first power supply unit having no filter and a second power supply unit having a filter. When an irradiation position of the charged particle beam in an irradiation object is moved, the first power supply unit, namely a power supply unit having no filter, is used to apply the voltage to the scanning electromagnet, so that an exciting current flowing in the scanning electromagnet can be changed in a short time. Further, when the irradiation position of the charged particle beam is maintained, the second power supply is used to apply a voltage whose pulsating component was removed to the scanning electromagnet, so that the exciting current flowing in the scanning electromagnet can be controlled precisely. Consequently, the charged particle beam can be applied uniformly to the irradiation object and an irradiation time of the charged particle beam to the irradiation object can be curtailed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 20, 2003
    Date of Patent: April 19, 2005
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Hiroshi Akiyama, Hiroshi Kubo, Kazuo Hiramoto
  • Publication number: 20040232356
    Abstract: A particle therapy system is provided which can simply and quickly correct a beam orbit. In a particle therapy system provided with an irradiation facility comprising a first beam transport system for receiving a beam and transporting the beam to the patient side, and an irradiation nozzle for forming an irradiation field of the beam, the particle therapy system comprises first beam position monitors for detecting a position upstream of the irradiation nozzle at which the beam passes, second beam position monitors for detecting a position downstream of the irradiation nozzle at which the charged-particle beam passes, and first and second steering magnets. Correction bending amounts for causing the beam to be coincident with a predetermined orbit after the correction are determined in accordance with detected results from the first and second beam position monitors, and first and second steering magnets are excited under control so that the determined correction bending amounts are obtained.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 22, 2004
    Publication date: November 25, 2004
    Inventors: Tetsuro Norimine, Masumi Umezawa, Kazuo Hiramoto
  • Patent number: 6800866
    Abstract: To provide an accelerator system having a wide ion beam current control range, being capable of operating with low power consumption and a long maintenance interval and being capable of preventing unnecessarily large dose of the ion beam for irradiation from erroneously being supplied to the downstream side of the system. In an accelerator system designed to treat the patient with irradiation of a high-energy ion beam accelerated by a post-accelerator 4 comprising a synchrotron in irradiation rooms 6 to 8, a value of ion beam current to be supplied to the post-accelerator 4 is controlled by a pre-accelerator comprising an ion source 10, quadrupole electromagnet 15, radio frequency quadrupole accelerator 17 and a drift tube type accelerator 19. The accelerator system featuring low power consumption, a long maintenance interval and high reliability can be made available.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 20, 2002
    Date of Patent: October 5, 2004
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Kensuke Amemiya, Kazuo Hiramoto, Masanobu Tanaka, Shigemitsu Hara
  • Patent number: 6774383
    Abstract: A particle therapy system is provided which can simply and quickly correct a beam orbit. In a particle therapy system provided with an irradiation facility comprising a first beam transport system for receiving a beam and transporting the beam to the patient side, and an irradiation nozzle for forming an irradiation field of the beam, the particle therapy system comprises first beam position monitors for detecting a position upstream of the irradiation nozzle at which the beam passes, second beam position monitors for detecting a position downstream of the irradiation nozzle at which the charged-particle beam passes, and first and second steering magnets. Correction bending amounts for causing the beam to be coincident with a predetermined orbit after the correction are determined in accordance with detected results from the first and second beam position monitors, and first and second steering magnets are excited under control so that the determined correction bending amounts are obtained.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 25, 2003
    Date of Patent: August 10, 2004
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Tetsuro Norimine, Masumi Umezawa, Kazuo Hiramoto
  • Publication number: 20040069959
    Abstract: A power supply for applying a voltage to a scanning electromagnet for deflecting a charged particle beam has a first power supply unit having no filter and a second power supply unit having a filter. When an irradiation position of the charged particle beam in an irradiation object is moved, the first power supply unit, namely a power supply unit having no filter, is used to apply the voltage to the scanning electromagnet, so that an exciting current flowing in the scanning electromagnet can be changed in a short time. Further, when the irradiation position of the charged particle beam is maintained, the second power supply is used to apply a voltage whose pulsating component was removed to the scanning electromagnet, so that the exciting current flowing in the scanning electromagnet can be controlled precisely. Consequently, the charged particle beam can be applied uniformly to the irradiation object and an irradiation time of the charged particle beam to the irradiation object can be curtailed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 20, 2003
    Publication date: April 15, 2004
    Applicant: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Hiroshi Akiyama, Hiroshi Kubo, Kazuo Hiramoto
  • Publication number: 20030183779
    Abstract: A particle therapy system is provided which can simply and quickly correct a beam orbit. In a particle therapy system provided with an irradiation facility comprising a first beam transport system for receiving a beam and transporting the beam to the patient side, and an irradiation nozzle for forming an irradiation field of the beam, the particle therapy system comprises first beam position monitors for detecting a position upstream of the irradiation nozzle at which the beam passes, second beam position monitors for detecting a position downstream of the irradiation nozzle at which the charged-particle beam passes, and first and second steering magnets. Correction bending amounts for causing the beam to be coincident with a predetermined orbit after the correction are determined in accordance with detected results from the first and second beam position monitors, and first and second steering magnets are excited under control so that the determined correction bending amounts are obtained.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 25, 2003
    Publication date: October 2, 2003
    Inventors: Tetsuro Norimine, Masumi Umezawa, Kazuo Hiramoto
  • Patent number: 6580084
    Abstract: An accelerator system which can be implemented in a small size at low manufacturing cost and which can nonetheless ensure a high utilization efficiency of the ion beam. The system includes an ion source for generating an ion beam, pre-accelerators for accelerating the ion beam generated by the ion source, an radioisotope producing unit for irradiating a target with the ion beam accelerated by the pre-accelerators for producing radioisotopes, a synchrotron into which the ion beam accelerated by the pre-accelerators is injected and from which the ion beam is ejected after acceleration, and a selector electromagnet for introducing the ion beam accelerated by the pre-accelerators into either the radioisotope producing unit or the synchrotron.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 13, 2000
    Date of Patent: June 17, 2003
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Kazuo Hiramoto, Hiroshi Akiyama
  • Publication number: 20030057382
    Abstract: A power supply for applying a voltage to a scanning electromagnet for deflecting a charged particle beam has a first power supply unit having no filter and a second power supply unit having a filter. When an irradiation position of the charged particle beam in an irradiation object is moved, the first power supply unit, namely a power supply unit having no filter, is used to apply the voltage to the scanning electromagnet, so that an exciting current flowing in the scanning electromagnet can be changed in a short time. Further, when the irradiation position of the charged particle beam is maintained, the second power supply is used to apply a voltage whose pulsating component was removed to the scanning electromagnet, so that the exciting current flowing in the scanning electromagnet can be controlled precisely. Consequently, the charged particle beam can be applied uniformly to the irradiation object and an irradiation time of the charged particle beam to the irradiation object can be curtailed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 5, 2002
    Publication date: March 27, 2003
    Applicant: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Hiroshi Akiyama, Hiroshi Kubo, Kazuo Hiramoto
  • Publication number: 20030048080
    Abstract: To provide an accelerator system having a wide ion beam current control range, being capable of operating with low power consumption and a long maintenance interval and being capable of preventing unnecessarily large does of the ion beam for irradiation from erroneously being supplied to the downstream side of the system.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 20, 2002
    Publication date: March 13, 2003
    Applicant: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Kensuke Amemiya, Kazuo Hiramoto, Masanobu Tanaka, Shigemitsu Hara
  • Patent number: 6472834
    Abstract: The accelerator is a cyclic type accelerator having deflection electromagnets and four-pole electromagnets for making a charged particle beam circulate, a multi-pole electromagnet for generating a stability limit of resonance of betatron oscillation for the production of the charged particle beam, and a high frequency source for applying a high frequency electromagnetic field to the beam to move the beam to the outside of the stability limit, thus exciting resonance in the betatron oscillation. The high frequency source generates a sum signal of a plurality of AC signals of which the instantaneous frequencies change with respect to time, and of which the average values of the instantaneous frequencies with respect to time are different, and applies the sum signal via electrodes to the beam.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 26, 2001
    Date of Patent: October 29, 2002
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Kazuo Hiramoto, Hideaki Nishiuchi
  • Patent number: 6433349
    Abstract: A charged-particle beam irradiation system for an affected part in which while a charged-particle beam ejected from an accelerator is scanned by an electromagnet onto the affected part, each layer of the affected part resulting from division of the affected part into a plurality of layers in a direction of progression of said charged-particle beam is irradiated with the charged-particle beam. The system includes a changer for changing an energy of said charged-particle beam in accordance with a layer of the plurality of layers to be irradiated with the charged-particle beam and an intensity controller for controlling an intensity of the charged-particle beam.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 8, 2001
    Date of Patent: August 13, 2002
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Hiroshi Akiyama, Kazuo Hiramoto, Koji Matsuda
  • Patent number: 6411391
    Abstract: A method of measuring a crystal section shape of a crystal being pulled from a crystal melt while rotating, including taking an image of the base of the crystal in horizontal and vertical directions with a two-dimensional camera set at an upper oblique position over the crystal; setting at least two horizontal light measuring lines in the image taken by the two-dimensional camera, being arranged in parallel in the vertical direction; detecting pairs of intersection points, at which a fusion ring intersects the two horizontal light measuring lines; transforming a position of each of the intersection points into a position of a point located on a line passing through a crystal center; determining diameters of the crystal based on the transformed positions and on time lags between two intersection points of each of the pairs of intersection points.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 28, 1999
    Date of Patent: June 25, 2002
    Assignee: Sumitomo Metal Industries. Ltd.
    Inventors: Keiichi Takanashi, Kazuo Hiramoto, Tokuji Maeda
  • Patent number: 6365894
    Abstract: An electromagnet comprises a pair of magnetic pole 1a and 1b, a return yoke 3, exciting coils 4 and 5, etc. In an interior portion of a magnetic pole, plural spacers 2a-2g are provided putting side by side in a horizontal direction. Each of the spaces 2a-2g is an air layer and a longitudinal cross-section is a substantially rectangular shape and the space has a lengthily extending slit shape in a vertical direction against a paper face in FIG. 1. The plural spaces are mainly arranged toward a right side from a beam orbit center O and an interval formed between adjacent spaces is narrower toward the right side. The electromagnet having a simple magnetic pole structure and a wide effective magnetic field area in a case where a maximum magnetic field strength is increased can be secured.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 19, 2001
    Date of Patent: April 2, 2002
    Assignees: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Masahiro Tadokoro, Junichi Hirota, Kazuo Hiramoto, Masumi Umezawa, Yoshihisa Iwashita