• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.305-312
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• 2011

A primary interest of this work is to develop an efficient and powerful repetitive pulser system for the application of ultra wide band generation. The important component of the pulser system is a small-sized coaxial type spark gap with planar electrodes filled with SF6 gas. A repetitive switching action by the coaxial spark gap generates two consecutive pulses in less than a microsecond with rise times of a few hundred picoseconds (ps). A set of several parameters for the repetitive switching of the spark gap is required to be optimized in charging and discharging systems of the pulser. The parameters in the charging system include a circuit scheme, circuit elements, the applied voltage and current ratings from power supplies. The parameters in the discharging system include the spark gap geometry, electrode gap distance, gas type, gas pressure and the load. The characteristics of the spark gap discharge, such as breakdown voltage, output current pulse and recovery rate are too dynamic to control by switching continuously at a high pulse repetition rate (PRR). This leads to a low charging efficiency of the spark gap system. The breakthrough of the low charging efficiency is achieved by a parallel operation of two spark gaps system. The operational behavior of the two spark gaps system is presented in this paper. The work has focused on improvement of the charging efficiency by scaling the PRR of each spark gap in the two spark gaps system.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.25 no.9
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• pp.1158-1165
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• 2021

This paper proposes a CNN accelerator which is optimized Pooling layer operation incorporated in Multiplication And Accumulation(MAC) to reduce the memory size. For optimizing memory and data path circuit, the quantized 8bit integer weights are used instead of 32bit floating-point weights for pre-training of MNIST data set. To reduce chip area, the proposed CNN model is reduced by a convolutional layer, a 4*4 Max Pooling, and two fully connected layers. And all the operations use specific MAC with approximation adders and multipliers. 94% of internal memory size reduction is achieved by simultaneously performing the convolution and the pooling operation in the proposed architecture. The proposed accelerator chip is designed by using TSMC65nmGP CMOS process. That has about half size of our previous paper, 0.8*0.9 = 0.72mm². The presented CNN accelerator chip achieves 94% accuracy and 77us inference time per an MNIST image.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.230-235
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• 2005

Purpose: To evaluate the contralateral breast dose using a virtual wedge compared with that using a Physical wedge and an open beam in a Siemens linear accelerator. Materials and Methods: The contralateral breast dose was measured using diodes placed on a humanoid phantom. Diodes were placed at 5.5 cm (position 1), 9.5 cm (position 2), and 14 cm (position 3) along the medial-lateral line from the medial edge of the treatment field. A 6-MV photon beam was used with tangential irradiation technique at 50 and 230 degrees of gantry angle. Asymmetrically collimated $17{\times}10cm$ field was used. for the first set of experiment, four treatment set-ups were used, which were an open medial beam with a 30-degree wedged lateral beam (physical and virtual wedges, respectively) and a 15-degree wedged medial beam with a 15-degree wedged lateral beam (physical and virtual wedges, respectively). The second set of experiment consists of setting with medial beam without wedge, a 15-degree wedge, and a 50-degree wedge (physical and virtual wedges, respectively). Identical monitor units were delivered. Each set of experiment was repeated for three times. Results: In the first set of experiment, the contralateral breast dose was the highest at the position 1 and decreased in order of the position 2 and 3. The contralateral breast dose was reduced with open beam on the medial side ($2.70{\pm}1.46%$) compared to medial beam with a wedge (both physical and virtual) ($3.25{\pm}1.59%$). The differences were larger with a physical wedge ($0.99{\pm}0.18%$) than a virtual wedge ($0.10{\pm}0.01%$) at all positions. The use of a virtual wedge reduced the contralateral breast dose by 0.12% to 1.20% of the proscribed dose compared to a physical wedge with same technique. In the second experiment, the contralateral breast dose decreased in order of the open beam, the virtual wedge, and the physical wedge at the position 1, and it decreased in order of a physical wedge, an open beam, and a virtual wedge at the position 2 and 3. Conclusion: The virtual wedge equipped in a Siemens linear accelerator was found to be useful in reducing dose to the contralateral breast. Our additional finding was that the surface dose distribution from the Siemens accelerator was different from a Varian accelerator.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.109-113
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• 2002

In recent years, the radiotherapy equipment has become much more sophisticated, and with the complication comes an increased set of quality assurance (QA) responsibilities. Today's computer controlled linear accelerator requiring QA of not only the radiation integrity, but also the mechanical accuracy of the linear accelerator. The existing QA sheets are adequate for acceptance testing and commissioning but those sheets are somewhat descriptive form for routine QA. establishing the QA sheets for a facility are more efficient if the sheets could estimate the long-term stability for the result of QA. We are going to develope new prototype of mechanical QA sheet to visualize and to verify long-term stability of mechanical QA for clinical linear accelerator. The items included in mechanical QA sheet were 1) gantry rotation, 2) collimator rotation, 3) couch rotation, 4) optical distance indicator (ODI), and 5) laser alignment. We compared new prototype sheet with conventional sheet for several hospitals in Korea for those items. The QA acceptance criteria in this study mainly followed published recommendations. The contents of test for mechanical QA are the following. Confirm that the digital and/or mechanical gantry angle readouts are correct. Verify that digital and/or mechanical readouts of collimator angle agree with the true angle, as determined with the protractor. Measure the light field using a graph paper and compare with the digital readouts. Confirm digital readout accuracy. Verify that the sagittal laser, the left and right lasers, and the ceiling laser intersect at the isocenter. In the design of new QA sheet, we emphasized the representation of the long-term stability of mechanical QA by using Excel program. By using the new prototype QA sheet, we simplified and visualized the mechanical QA process, and could estimate the long-term stability of mechanical error of linear accelerator.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.141-145
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• 2017

Background: The concrete walls inside the vaults of cyclotron facilities are activated by neutrons emitted by the targets during radioisotope production. Reducing the amount of radioactive waste created in such facilities is very important in case they are decommissioned. Thus, we proposed a strategy of reducing the neutron activation of the concrete walls in cyclotrons during operation. Materials and Methods: A polyethylene plate and B-doped Al sheet (30 wt% of B and 2.5 mm in thickness) were placed in front of the wall in the cyclotron room of a radioisotope production facility for pharmaceutical use. The target was Xe gas, and a Cu block was utilized for proton dumping. The irradiation time, proton energy, and beam current were 8 hours, 30 MeV, and $125{\mu}A$, respectively. To determine a suitable thickness for the polyethylene plate set in front of the B-doped Al sheet, the neutron-reducing effects achieved by inserting such sheets at several depths within polyethylene plate stacks were evaluated. The neutron fluence was monitored using an activation detector and 20-g on de Au foil samples with and without 0.5-mm-thick Cd foil. Each Au foil sample was pasted onto the center of a polyethylene plate and B-doped Al sheet, and the absolute activity of one Au foil sample was measured as a standard using a Ge detector. The resulting relative activities were obtained by calculating the ratio of the photostimulated luminescence of each foil sample to that of the standard Au foil. Results and Discussion: When the combination of a 4-cm-thick polyethylene plate and B-doped Al sheet was employed, the thermal neutron rate was reduced by 78%. Conclusion: The combination of a 4-cm-thick polyethylene plate and B-doped Al sheet effectively reduced the neutron activation of the investigated concrete wall.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.81-88
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• 2013

Neutron spectrum analyses of spallation neutrons are conducted in the accelerator-driven system (ADS) facility at the Kyoto University Critical Assembly (KUCA). High-energy protons (100 MeV) obtained from the fixed field alternating gradient accelerator are injected onto a tungsten target, whereby the spallation neutrons are generated. For neutronic characteristics of spallation neutrons, the reaction rates and the continuous energy distribution of spallation neutrons are measured by the foil activation method and by an organic liquid scintillator, respectively. Numerical calculations are executed by MCNPX with JENDL/HE-2007 and ENDF/B-VI libraries to evaluate the reaction rates of activation foils (bismuth and indium) set at the target and the continuous energy distribution of spallation neutrons set in front of the target. For the reaction rates by the foil activation method, the C/E values between the experiments and the calculations are found around a relative difference of 10%, except for some reactions. For continuous energy distribution by the organic liquid scintillator, the spallation neutrons are observed up to 45 MeV. From these results, the neutron spectrum information on the spallation neutrons generated at the target are attained successfully in injecting 100 MeV protons onto the tungsten target.

• The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.37-42
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• 1985

Radiation Therapy(RT) has been used in the treatment of breast cancer for over 80 years. Technically, it should include a part or all of such areas as chest wall or breast, axilla, internal mammary nodes(IM) and supraclavicular nodes (SCL). Authors tried three-field technique for the treatment of breast cancer using 6 MV linear accelerator, exclusively the department of Radiology, Kang-Nam St. Mary's Hospital, at Catholic Medical College. The field junction was checked by a phantom study and radiation doses measured by film densitometry and TLD. The 3 fields we used in this study were two isocentric opposing tangential fields encompassing the breast, chest wall and occasionally IM and one single anterior field encompassing the axilla and SCL. Using appropriate beam blocks and blouses, we were able to avoid unwanted intrinsic divergency of photon beam. Blocking also enabled us to set-up precise radiation field with ease.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.303-309
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• 1984

Radiation therapy(RT) has been used in the treatment of breast cancer for over 80years. Technically, it should include a part or all of such areas as chest wall or breast, axilla, internal mammary nodes (IM) and supraclavicular nodes (SCL). Authors tried three-field technique for the treatment of breast cancer using 6-MV linear accelerator, exclusively the department of radiology. Kang-Nam St. Mary's Hospital, at Catholic Medical College. The field junction was checked by a Phantom study and radiation doses measured by film densitometry and TLD. The 3 fields we used in this study were two isocentric opposing tangential fields encompassing the breast, chest wall and occasionally IM and one single anterior field encompassing the axilla and SCL. sing appropriate beam blocks and boluses, we were able to avoid unwanted intrinsic divergency of photon beam. Blocking also enabled us to set-up precise radiation field with ease.

• The Korean Journal of Quaternary Research
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.27-40
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• 1990

$^{14}C$ age dating by AMS (accelerator mass spectrometry) technique was performed on twenty five small sized fossil shells and one peat taken from the sixteen piston cores in the southern and southeastern Korean Sea. AMS technique is available to date only a few milligram of amorphous carbons compare than conventional dating technique. It is described in detail of sample pre-treatment and experimental, and applied to the reconstruction of the sea level changes since the late Pleistocene in the Korean Sea. Dated age ranges from 520$\pm$100 to older than 33,500 years. Sedimentary facies in the study area represents a different environmental set which is affected by sea level fluctuation since the late Pleistocene.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1998.05a
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• pp.149-154
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• 1998

A subcritical reactor driven by a linear proton accelerator has been considered as a nuclear waste incinerator at Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute(KAERI). Since the multiplication factor of a subcritical reactor is less than unity, to compensate exponentially decreasing fission neutrons from spallation reactions are essentially required for operating the reactor in its steady state. furthermore, the profile of accelerator beam currents is very important in controlling a subcritical reactor, because the reactor power varies in accordance of the profile of external neutrons. We have developed a code system to find numerical solutions of reactor kinetics equations, which are the simplest dynamic model for controlling reactors. In a due course of our previous numerical study of point kinetics equations for critical reactors, however, we learned that the same code system can be used in studying dynamic behavior of the subcritical reactor. Our major motivation of this paper is to investigate responses of subcritical reactors for small changes in thermal hydraulic parameters. Building a thermal hydraulic model for the subcritical reactor dynamics, we performed numerical simulations for dynamic responses of the reactor based on point kinetics equations with a source term. Linearizing a set of coupled differential equations for reactor responses, we focus our research interest on dynamic responses of the reactor to variations of the thermal hydraulic parameters in transient phases.