Being in the field of Radiology, we can often encounter thed term LINAC, some might be familiar with it, while others are not.

So, for the benefits of those who don’t know what is LINAC, what does it mean and what are inside it, I will give an overview together with a video below:

A linear particle accelerator or simply LINear ACcelerator (often shortened to linac) is a type of particle accelerator that greatly increases the velocity of charged subatomic particles or ions by subjecting the charged particles to a series of oscillating electric potentials along a linear beamline.

Linacs have many applications, from the generation of X-rays for medicinal purposes, to being an injector for a higher-energy accelerators, to the investigation of the properties of subatomic particles. The design of a linac depends on the type of particle that is being accelerated: electrons, protons or ions. They range in size from a cathode ray tube to the 2-mile (3.2 km) long Stanford Linear Accelerator Center in Stanford, California.

A video below can describe the components of a LINAC machine:

Video courtesy of OULearn.

For further information, you can read the detailed description here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_particle_accelerator