Production of a high purity 18F radioactive beam

An efficient method for the production and post-acceleration of a pure 18F(T1/2=109.8 min) radioactive beam has been developed. Large amounts of 18F are produced via the 18O(p,n)18F reaction using a 15.5 MeV proton beam on an 18O-enriched water target. After the chemical purification of the target content, the 18F activity is transferred into [18F]-fluoromethane. It is then transported to an ECR ion source, where after dissociation of the molecules, the fluorine atoms are ionized. Finally, the 18F2+ ions are accelerated to 14 MeV in a second cyclotron. The different steps in the production cycle and the characteristics of the final 18F beam are discussed.