Development of a range counter with SiPM readout for proton CT

Author

Zatserklyaniy, A. ; Feng, V. ; Johnson, R.P. ; Lustig-Jaeger, J. ; Macafee, S. ; Plautz, Tia ; Plumb, A. ; Sadrozinski, H.F.-W. ; Steinberg, D. ; Bashkirov, V. ; Hurley, F. ; Schulte, R.

Author_Institution

Santa Cruz Inst. for Particle Phys., Univ. of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, USA

fYear

2012

fDate

Oct. 27 2012-Nov. 3 2012

Firstpage

1326

Lastpage

1329

Abstract

We report on the development of a range counter to be used in a new head scanner developed for proton Computed Tomography (pCT) in support of proton therapy treatment planning. The scanner consists of two silicon telescopes which track the proton before and after the phantom/patient, and an energy detector which measures the residual energy or range of the proton to reconstruct the Water Equivalent Path Length (WEPL) in the phantom. The optimization of the range counter is based on a simulation using GEANT4 and tests of hardware prototypes both in proton beams, beta source, and cosmic rays in the laboratory. Using 3.75 mm thick polystyrene tiles with a silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) attached directly to the 40 cm long scintillator, excellent efficiency and very low thermo-electric noise were observed in the 200 MeV proton beam.

Keywords

computerised tomography; medical computing; phantoms; photomultipliers; radiation therapy; telescopes; GEANT4; SiPM readout; beta source; cosmic rays; electron volt energy 200 MeV; energy detector; hardware prototypes; head scanner development; pCT; phantom-patient; polystyrene tiles; proton CT; proton beams; proton computed tomography; proton therapy treatment planning; range counter development; residual energy; scintillator; silicon photomultiplier; silicon telescopes; size 3.75 mm; size 40 cm; thermoelectric noise; water equivalent path length;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference (NSS/MIC), 2012 IEEE

Conference_Location

Anaheim, CA

ISSN

1082-3654

Print_ISBN

978-1-4673-2028-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/NSSMIC.2012.6551324

Filename

6551324