TSN Technology from CAST Powers Advanced Cancer Treatment

Breaking new ground in cancer research at the Heidelberg Ion Beam Therapy Center

Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey — October 17, 2025 — Semiconductor intellectual property (IP) core provider CAST today announced that its Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) IP technology has been selected by the Eckelmann Group for integration into advanced heavy ion beam therapy systems developed for the Heidelberg Ion Beam Therapy Center (HIT), a world-class facility specializing in highly effective and precision cancer treatments.

Eckelmann Group with its sector PBM (Pharma, Biotech, and Medical Solutions), a global system partner to pharmaceutical manufacturers, chose CAST’s TSN IP to enhance the performance and reliability of its applications used in particle accelerator systems for cancer therapy. These systems require exceptional precision, particularly in synchronizing the magnet power supplies that control heavy ion beams for tumor targeting.

“CAST’s TSN IP plays a critical role in enabling real-time, deterministic communication within HIT’s therapy systems,” said Frank Wohlfahrt, system architect at Eckelmann Group. “The decision to purchase from CAST was low-risk, as their IP is production-proven, rigorously tested, and fully compliant with the required TSN standards and profiles. By leveraging the integrated Linux driver and the gPTP software stack, we have been able to shorten our development times. Implementation is still in full swing.”

Alexander Mozgovenko, CAST product and sales engineering manager, commented: “We continue to work closely with Eckelmann as they complete their initial implementation of the TSN network. This is an ideal application for our industry-leading technology.”

In the HIT system it is planned to use TSN to synchronize communication among up to 200 devices with sub-microsecond precision, ensuring accurate control of the therapy beam.

A spokesperson for HIT commented: “CAST’s dedication to supporting evolving TSN standards ensures that their IP solutions will continue to meet the increasing complexity of our system designs. This partnership strengthens our ability to deliver cutting-edge, life-saving therapies today and into the future.”

CAST remains at the forefront of TSN adoption, building on experience with early adopters and providing IP that uses a fraction of the silicon resources of competing IP cores. Its comprehensive TSN IP portfolio includes Endpoint, Switch, and Switched Endpoint cores—each regularly updated and validated for standards compliance through extensive interoperability testing at industry plugfests and tested on the CAST hardware reference design. These TSN cores are part of CAST’s broader Automotive Interface IP family, which also includes MACsec, Low-Latency eMAC, LIN, CAN, TCP/IP, and UDP/IP cores. Contact CAST sales for more information.