Status of development on LaB filament arc-driven multi-cusp ion source for iBNCT

Shibata, Takanori*; Takagi, Akira*; Ikegami, Kiyoshi*; Sugimura, Takashi*; Nammo, Kesao*; Naito, Fujio*; Kobayashi, Hitoshi*; Kurihara, Toshikazu*; Honda, Yosuke*; Sato, Masaharu*; Okoshi, Kiyonori ; Shinto, Katsuhiro   

In order to satisfy the second term clinical trial condition of iBNCT, which requires 5 mA proton beam extraction from linac, beam operation of Lanthanum Hexaboride (LaB) filament has been started from Oct. 2017. In the test stand, plasma arc discharge properties and beam current measurement via Faraday-cup (FC) has been done under several ion source conditions. By Mar. 2018, 45 mA of beam current has been achieved at FC. Although the pulse width of arc discharge is limited to 200 s by the capacitor bank in arc pulser power supply, still the wave form of the arc discharge current/voltage and the resultant beam current at FC have shown very stable flat top (beam current fluctuation below 0.5 %) after 50 s. Further increase of beam current is required by optimization of AMFC (Axial Magnetic Field correction) field and filament emission which will be done in 2018.