Commercial ionization chambers used in conventional radiotherapy are not suited for dosimetry and QA of Ultra-High Dose Rate (UHDR) beams typical of FLASH radiotherapy. Solid-state devices offer a promising alternative, given the enhanced radiation hardness and stability. Silicon Carbide (SiC) detectors, with their wide bandgap, are showing potentialities for these challenges. The cooperation between INFN – Catania Division and STLab has led to the INFN CNTT financed DREAM project, which aims to design, develop, and characterize an array of SiC detectors for high-accuracy, high-spatial-resolution dose distribution, and dose rate measurements with UHDR electron and proton beams. The project features an array of >60 small-sized (<1 mm radius) SiC detectors for real-time measurement of lateral dose profiles of UHDR beams. By using an array, the total dose accumulated for the dose profile measurements can be minimized compared to currently available single moving detector scanning the beam diameter. This kind of device is the first which allows measurement of FLASH dose distribution with one or few pulses, sensibly reducing radioprotection issues. A preliminary test on a prototype was performed at the Centro Pisano Flash RadioTherapy (CPFR) in Pisa with 9 MeV UHDR electron beams, with four SiC detectors mounted on the final board and connected to the electronic integrators realized by STLab, enabling the simultaneous measurement of the charge collected. A software for the real time visualization of the data was also realized. The preliminary experiment allowed to verify the linearity of the produced charge up to an instantaneous dose rate of about 1 MGy/s and to successfully test the electronics. With such promising results, the DREAM project aims at releasing an innovative and original commercially viable turn-key package composed by the SiC array capable of measuring and reconstructing lateral profiles in single shot mode, required for FLASH radiotherapy Quality Assurance procedures.
QA for flash radiotherapy: silicon carbide array as a beam profile detector for UHDRS
Trovato, G.
;Manno, A.;Milluzzo, G.;Moscato, S.;Okpuwe, C.;Camarda, M.;
2026-01-01
Abstract
Commercial ionization chambers used in conventional radiotherapy are not suited for dosimetry and QA of Ultra-High Dose Rate (UHDR) beams typical of FLASH radiotherapy. Solid-state devices offer a promising alternative, given the enhanced radiation hardness and stability. Silicon Carbide (SiC) detectors, with their wide bandgap, are showing potentialities for these challenges. The cooperation between INFN – Catania Division and STLab has led to the INFN CNTT financed DREAM project, which aims to design, develop, and characterize an array of SiC detectors for high-accuracy, high-spatial-resolution dose distribution, and dose rate measurements with UHDR electron and proton beams. The project features an array of >60 small-sized (<1 mm radius) SiC detectors for real-time measurement of lateral dose profiles of UHDR beams. By using an array, the total dose accumulated for the dose profile measurements can be minimized compared to currently available single moving detector scanning the beam diameter. This kind of device is the first which allows measurement of FLASH dose distribution with one or few pulses, sensibly reducing radioprotection issues. A preliminary test on a prototype was performed at the Centro Pisano Flash RadioTherapy (CPFR) in Pisa with 9 MeV UHDR electron beams, with four SiC detectors mounted on the final board and connected to the electronic integrators realized by STLab, enabling the simultaneous measurement of the charge collected. A software for the real time visualization of the data was also realized. The preliminary experiment allowed to verify the linearity of the produced charge up to an instantaneous dose rate of about 1 MGy/s and to successfully test the electronics. With such promising results, the DREAM project aims at releasing an innovative and original commercially viable turn-key package composed by the SiC array capable of measuring and reconstructing lateral profiles in single shot mode, required for FLASH radiotherapy Quality Assurance procedures.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
