Digital vs.
Analogue Control
Systems
Presented at the 2011 Annual Meeting of the American College
of Medical Physics, Chattanooga, TN, May 1, 2011
Ivan A. Brezovich, PhD, Dept. of Rad Onc, Univ of Alabama at
Birmingham
Disclosure: Research supported in part by Varian Medical
Systems
Accelerator control systems
Mechanical Analogue or digital
Gantry angle
Collimator angle
Jaw position
MLC leaf position
Couch positions (angle, vertical, long, lat)
Internal devices (target, flattening filter, light field projector)
Electronic Analogue or digital
Beam production
Electron gun
Rf power
Steering coil current
Bend magnet current
Dosimetry system
Ancillary systems (vacuum, temperature control, etc.)
Analogue transducer, analogue readout
+ Single-turn potentiometer
Wiper
Vout
Resistance
wire
Shaft
Vout
10-turn potentiometer
+
Calibrated in deg gantry or
collimator angle, cm couch
position
Resolver: brushless analogue rotation
transducer
Analogue signal output
shaft
Resolver - principle of operation
Armature
shaft
Input signals Shaft angle Output signal
Vout = V0 sin ( )
Vin1 = V0 cos
Vin2 = V0 sin
Shaft angle found from phase angle of Vout
Rack and pinion drive for couch movements
Motor with Pinion
gear drive
with position
indicator in
back
Rack, attached to couch top
Spindle (screw) drive
Geared motor
with position
readout in back
nut
Rotating spindle
Limitations of analogue devices
Precision of potentiometer ~ 0.1% linearity
0.4 mm for 40x40cm2 field
Sensitive to small changes in wire resistance
Degraded accuracy by use and age (brush)
Sensitive to power supply voltage
Reading accuracy ~ 0.2%
Digital readout - used even in early linacs
Analogue transducer, analogue and digital readouts
(potentiometer)
Single-hand clock: purely analogue display
Reading accuracy about 6 minutes ~ 1%
2-hand clock: Hybrid, one digit + analogue
Reading accuracy min (0.1%)
Kings Cross railway station, London
3-hand clock: Hybrid, two digits + analogue
Reading accuracy sec ~ 0.001%
Analogue precision transducers
Geared potentiometers
Hour hand pot goes around once
Minute hand pot goes around many times
0.01% rotational precision readily obtained with 0.2%
accuracy pots
Geared (dual) resolvers same principle
Digital transducer: 3-bit shaft encoder
Standard binary encoding
2 Sector 1
3 Con- Con- Con-
Sector tact 1 tact 2 tact 3 Angle
4 1 off off off 0 - 45
2 off off ON 45 - 90
3 off ON off 90 - 135
4 off ON ON 135 - 180
5 ON off off 180 - 225
5
6 ON off ON 225 - 270
8 7 ON ON off 270 - 315
6 7 8 ON ON ON 315 - 360
Contact 1 Contact 2 Contact 3
3-bit shaft encoder
Gray encoding
2 Sector 1 Con- Con- Con-
3
Sector tact 1 tact 2 tact 3 Angle
1 off off off 0 - 45
4 2 off off ON 45 - 90
3 off ON ON 90 - 135
4 off ON off 135 - 180
5 ON ON off 180 - 225
5 6 ON ON ON 225 - 270
8
7 ON off ON 270 - 315
8 ON off off 315 - 360
6 7
Contact 1 Contact 2 Contact 3
13-bit shaft encoder
shaft Precision = 1rev/213
0.01% of 1rev
Digital
output
13-bit shaft encoder
Shaft 13 tracks Optical reader
Incremental encoders count pulses
Cannel A leads clockwise rotation
Cannel B leads ccw rotation
Stepper motor driver and encoder
Coil A energized
C
C B
B C
A
Energizing coils A, B, C . ccw rotation
Energizing coils A, C, B . clockwise rotation
Stepper motor in 1-D water tank
Stepper motor
200 pulses/rev
Spindle
6 mm/rev
nut
Stepper motor in 3-D water tank
Stepper motor spindle
with 90 turn gear nut
Initialization of Varian MLC
IR emitting diode Origin (zero) when light at
detector reduced by 50%
Light detector
60 leaves
Spindle (screw), 1.5 mm/rev pitch
16:1 reduction gear (two 1: 4 planetary
4.5 cm
gears in series)
MLC drive
assembly
DC electric motor with permanent magnet
Incremental encoder, 2 pulses per rev
Initialization of Varian x-ray jaws
Collision
block Hard stop
Incremental
Reduction gear encoder
Spindle (screw)
nut
DC motor
X-ray
jaw Origin (zero point) established when
Collision block hits Hard stop. Collision
detected by sudden surge of DC
current when motor stalls
Control systems: Operational amplifier
input pos
input inv
Vs+ , Vs pos and neg power supply voltages
Zin = Iin = 0 small input current
Zout = 0 Iout = high output current
Vout = (V+V)A high amplification A
Analogue mechanical control system
console accelerator
Motor spins until voltage of
potentiometer at back of motor
matches program voltage
+12V Program
voltage
output
op
power amp
amp
+12V
-12V motor
Feedback voltage -12V
Digital mechanical control system
Console Accelerator
Node (in stand
of linac)
Controller for Digital to analogue
gantry motions converter
Encoder Gantry
(absolute) motor
Compares desired gantry
position to actual position
Analogue electronic control system for energy
console accelerator
Output current increases until
feedback voltage matches program
voltage
+12V Program
voltage
+
Op Power amp
amp
Bend magnet coils
-12V
Feedback voltage Feedback resistor
Analogue electronic control for beam symmetry
Ion chamber Output current adjusts until (processed)
signals from both chamber halves
Upper half become equal, i.e., beam is symmetric
(toward gantry)
Op
Power amp
amp
Beam steering coils
Lower half
(toward couch)
Balancing network
Digital electronic control for beam symmetry
Ion chamber Node Computes ratio of inputs and compares
to desired ratio sent from node. Sends
Upper half correction signal to DAC
(toward gantry)
Con
Dig to anal Power
troll
converter amp
er
Beam steering coils
Lower half
(toward couch)
Analogue to digital
converters
Dual systems for safety of modern digital
accelerators
Mechanical systems
Encoder on back of drive motor + encoder on driven
object (gantry angle, couch position, etc.), agreement
monitored by computer
Electronic systems
Ion chamber has multiple segments, outputs
monitored by computer
Resistance of bend magnet measured
Neutron protection boron impregnated polyethylene plates
protect against single-event upsets
Merits of digital systems
Less sensitive to noise
Less sensitive to component drift
Easy return to original settings
Easy replacement of broken components
High precision of mechanical systems
Flattening filter and field light projector can be
remotely adjusted
Information readily available for processing
Monitor machine performance to predict problems
Cooling water flow rate monitored at many places
Vacuum system leaks
SF6 leaks
Merits of digital systems
Take into account second order effects
Flexing of image receiver arm
Automatic tuning
Slow changes of components
Thyratron aging
Waveguide resonant frequency
