Commissioning of low particle flux for proton beams at MedAustron

Ulrich-Pur, Felix; Adler, Laurids; Bergauer, T.; Burker, A.; Franco, Andrea; Guidoboni, Greta; Hirtl, A.; Irmler, C.; Kaser, Stefanie; Nowak, S.; Pitters, F. M.; Pivi, M.; Prokopovich, Dale A.; Schmitzer, C.; Wastl, Alexander

doi:10.1016/j.nima.2021.165570

Cited by 15 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…The performance of the pCT demonstrator was then tested in a testbeam in the research beam line of MedAustron. 100.4 MeV protons with reduced beam intensities (≈ 3 × 10 5 particles/s) [18] were used for the measurement. In total, 80 proton computed radiographs (forward projections) were recorded with angles ranging from 0 to 360 • .…”

Section: Imaging Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Proton Computed Tomography Demonstrator for Stopping Power Measurements

Ulrich-Pur

Bergauer²,

Burker³

et al. 2022

J. Phys.: Conf. Ser.

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Particle therapy is an established method to treat deep-seated tumours using accelerator-produced ion beams. For treatment planning, the precise knowledge of the relative stopping power (RSP) within the patient is vital. Conversion errors from x-ray computed tomography (CT) measurements to RSP introduce uncertainties in the applied dose distribution. Using a proton computed tomography (pCT) system to measure the SP directly could potentially increase the accuracy of treatment planning. A pCT demonstrator, consisting of double-sided silicon strip detectors (DSSD) as tracker and plastic scintillator slabs coupled to silicon photomultipliers (SiPM) as a range telescope, was developed. After a significant hardware upgrade of the range telescope, a 3D tomogram of an aluminium stair phantom was recorded at the MedAustron facility in Wiener Neustadt, Austria. In total, 80 projections with 6.5 × 105 primary events were acquired and used for the reconstruction of the RSP distribution in the phantom. After applying a straight-line approximation for the particle path inside the phantom, the most probable value (MPV) of the RSP distribution could be measured with an accuracy of 0.59%. The RSP resolution inside the phantom was only 9.3% due to a limited amount of projections and measured events per projection.

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Section: Imaging Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Proton Computed Tomography Demonstrator for Stopping Power Measurements

Ulrich-Pur

Bergauer²,

Burker³

et al. 2022

J. Phys.: Conf. Ser.

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“…The SiC sensor samples used for this study were fabricated by CNM Barcelona based on 4H-SiC wafers with a diameter of 4 inches, which were purchased from Ascatron. 1 The wafers contain a 50 μm thick, n-doped epitaxial active layer with a resistivity of 20 Ohm cm. The wafers' total thickness is 400 μm.…”

Section: Samples Used In This Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These are used, among others, in particle therapies for cancer treatment, where particle rates up to 10 10 ions/s, concentrated on a small area of approx. 8 mm × 8 mm, occur [1]. Special requirements apply here also on the corresponding sensor materials.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

4H-silicon carbide as particle detector for high-intensity ion beams

Christanell¹,

Tomaschek²,

Bergauer³

2022

J. Inst.

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In ion cancer therapy, high-intensity ion beams are used to treat tumors by taking advantage of the Bragg-peak. Typical ion therapy centers use particle rates up to 1010 ions/second for treatment. On the other hand, such intensities are often too high when using these beamlines for particle physics experiments or as a test-beam environment in general. The project presented here aims to develop a beam position and intensity monitor, to cover a wide intensity range from a few Hz up to GHz rates, as used in clinical settings. Silicon carbide (SiC) is an attractive detector material for this application because it combines potential high radiation hardness with high thermal conductivity to avoid cooling. Moreover, its high electron saturation velocity allows very fast signals to mitigate pile-ups. However, some special properties of the material like different crystal polytypes have to be considered. In this paper, measurements on both a pad and a micro-strip SiC sensor prototype of 4H lattice geometry are shown. The sensors were tested in the laboratory using radioactive sources and with a proton beam in a wide intensity range (kHz–GHz) and with different energies (60–800 MeV) available at MedAustron, an ion cancer therapy center located in Austria. The measurements show that MIP particles cannot be detected reliably with the used discrete electronics setup in combination with the single-channel sensor. However, the strip sensor combined with an ASIC-based readout electronics from the CMS/Belle-II experiments allows to recover a certain part of the signal. This makes it possible to determine the ionization energy and average number of electron/hole pairs generated in the studied sensor samples.

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“…This section focuses on measurements at MedAustron, as those results are the baseline for digital readout developments of the successor chip RD50-MPW3. An introduction to the facility as well as the available beam settings can be found in [2].…”

Section: Rd50-mpw2 Measurementsmentioning

confidence: 99%