Objectives: Ultra-high pulse dose rate modalities present significant dosimetry challenges for ionisation chambers due to significant ion recombination. Conversely, calorimeters are ideally suited to measure high dose, short duration dose deliveries and this work describes a simple calorimeter as an alternative dosemeter for use in the clinic. Methods: Calorimeters were constructed featuring a disc-shaped core and single sensing thermistor encased in a 3D-printed body shaped like a Roos ionisation chamber. The thermistor forms one arm of a DC Wheatstone bridge, connected to a standard DMM. The bridge-out-of-balance voltage was calibrated in terms of temperature. A graphite-core calorimeter was calibrated in terms of absorbed dose to water (J/kg) in Co-60 and conventional 6, 10 and 15 MV X-rays. Similarly, an aluminium-core calorimeter was calibrated in a conventional 20 MeV electron beam and tested in a research high dose per pulse 6 MeV electron beam. Results: Calorimeters were successfully calibrated in terms of absorbed dose to water in conventional radiotherapy beams at approximately 5 Gy/min with an estimated uncertainty of ±2–2.5% (k = 2), and performed similarly in a 6 MeV electron beam delivering approximately 180 Gy/s. Conclusions: A simple, low-cost calorimeter traceably calibrated to existing primary standards of absorbed dose could be used as a secondary standard for dosimetry for ultra-high pulse dose rates in the clinic. Advances in knowledge: Secondary standard calorimeters for routine measurements are not available commercially; this work presents the basis of a simple, low-cost solution for reference dosimetry for ultra-high pulse dose rate beams.

Purpose Current techniques and procedures for dosimetry in microbeams typically rely on radiochromic film or small volume ionization chambers for validation and quality assurance in 2D and 1D, respectively. Whilst well characterized for clinical and preclinical radiotherapy, these methods are noninstantaneous and do not provide real time profile information. The objective of this work is to determine the suitability of the newly developed vM1212 detector, a pixelated CMOS (complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor) imaging sensor, for in situ and in vivo verification of x-ray microbeams. Methods Experiments were carried out on the vM1212 detector using a 220 kVp small animal radiation research platform (SARRP) at the Helmholtz Centre Munich. A 3 x 3 cm(2) square piece of EBT3 film was placed on top of a marked nonfibrous card overlaying the sensitive silicon of the sensor. One centimemter of water equivalent bolus material was placed on top of the film for build-up. The response of the detector was compared to an Epson Expression 10000XL flatbed scanner using FilmQA Pro with triple channel dosimetry. This was also compared to a separate exposure using 450 mu m of silicon as a surrogate for the detector and a Zeiss Axio Imager 2 microscope using an optical microscopy method of dosimetry. Microbeam collimator slits with range of nominal widths of 25, 50, 75, and 100 mu m were used to compare beam profiles and determine sensitivity of the detector and both film measurements to different microbeams. Results The detector was able to measure peak and valley profiles in real-time, a significant reduction from the 24 hr self-development required by the EBT3 film. Observed full width at half maximum (FWHM) values were larger than the nominal slit widths, ranging from 130 to 190 mu m due to divergence. Agreement between the methods was found for peak-to-valley dose ratio (PVDR), peak to peak separation and FWHM, but a difference in relative intensity of the microbeams was observed between the detectors. Conclusions The investigation demonstrated that pixelated CMOS sensors could be applied to microbeam radiotherapy for real-time dosimetry in the future, however the relatively large pixel pitch of the vM1212 detector limit the immediate application of the results.

Performing accurate and reliable dosimetry in spatially fractionated beams remains a significant challenge due to the steep dose gradients and microscopic scale of features. This results in many conventional detectors and instrumentation being unsuitable for online dosimetry, necessitating frequent offline validation using radiochromic film. In this study, the use of a Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS) detector for evaluation of relative real-time dosimetry of proton minibeam radiation therapy (pMBRT) was investigated. The linearity of the CMOS detector was investigated by varying the proton beam current, with a comparison to a PTW 34001 Roos ionisation chamber used to carry out an independent check. It was found that the relative peaks and valleys of the pMBRT beam could be measured, with results comparable to EBT3XD film. The high sensitivity of the CMOS detector meant it was able to measure dose profiles from peak to valley regions, something not possible with the EBT3XD. The CMOS detector was compared to the treatment delivery log files, with correlation in beam position seen as the beam is scanned along each slit, but not across; and agreement in beam intensity, with the CMOS detector able to observe beam interruptions. Lastly, the CMOS detector was used in conjunction with the NPL primary-standard proton calorimeter (NPL PSPC) for a preliminary study on combining the NPL PSPC with high resolution temporal information about the incident pMBRT beam. The ultimate aim of this approach is to facilitate detailed thermal modelling to reduce the overall uncertainty in the absolute dose measured from the calorimeter. In these experiments, saturation in the CMOS pixels prevented further thermal modelling of the radiation induced heat flow, however the instantaneous dose rate was observed to be comparable with the predicted NPL PSPC response obtained by masking the CMOS detector.

Background/Objectives: Spatial fractionation of proton fields as sub-millimeter beamlets to treat cancer has shown better sparing of healthy tissue whilst maintaining the same tumor control. It is critical to ensure primary standard dosimetry is accurate and ready to support the modality’s clinical implementation. Methods: This work provided a proof-of-concept, using the National Physical Laboratory’s Primary Standard Proton Calorimeter (PSPC) to measure average absorbed dose-to-water in a pMBRT field. A 100 MeV mono-energetic field and a 2 cm wide SOBP were produced with a spot-scanned proton beam incident on a collimator comprising 15 slits of 400 µm width, each 5 cm long and separated by a center-to-center distance of 4 mm. Results: The results showed the uncertainty on the absorbed dose-to-water in the mono-energetic beam was dominated by contributions of 1.4% and 1.1% ($k$ = 1) for the NPL PSPC and PTW Roos chambers, respectively, originating from the achievable positioning accuracy of the devices. In comparison, the uncertainty due to positioning in the SOBP for both the NPL PSPC and PTW Roos chambers were 0.4%. Conclusions: These results highlight that it may be more accurate and reliable to perform reference dosimetry measuring the Dose-Area Product or in an SOBP for spatially fractionated fields.

In this paper, we describe DECAL, a prototype Monolithic Active Pixel Sensor (MAPS) device designed to demonstrate the feasibility of both digital calorimetry and reconfigurability in ASICs for particle physics. The goal of this architecture is to help reduce the development and manufacturing costs of detectors for future colliders by developing a chip that can operate both as a digital silicon calorimeter and a tracking chip. The prototype sensor consists of a matrix of 64 × 64 55 $\mathsf{\mu }$m pixels, and provides a readout at 40 MHz of the number of particles which have struck the matrix in the preceding 25 ns. It can be configured to report this as a total sum across the sensor (equivalent to the pad of an analogue calorimeter) or the sum per column (equivalent to a traditional strip detector). The design and operation of the sensor are described, and the results of chip characterisation are reported and compared to simulations.