Design and testing of an internal hot-cathode-type PIG ion source for superconducting cyclotron

The superconducting cyclotron SC200 is intended to generate a 200 MeV, 400 nA proton beam for future particle therapy. The internal hot-cathode-type Penning ionization gauge (PIG) ion source for the SC200 is designed for the generation of hydrogen ions. A brief description of the design of ion source and test bench, which are used in SC200, is given in this paper. The ion source has been verified on the test bench, and the results indicated that the designed ion source meets the expected requirements. The lifetime of the filament exceeded 100 h in the test. In addition, the extraction voltage and the gas flow that influence the extracted ion current intensity have been tested in the experiment.