Design and development of a silicon segmented detector for 2D dose measurements in radiotherapy

Modern radiotherapy treatment techniques, such as intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) and protontherapy, require detectors with specific features, usually not available in conventional dosimeters. IMRT dose measurements, for instance, must face non-uniform beam fluences as well as a time-varying dose rate. Two-dimensional detectors present a great interest for dosimetry in beams with steep dose gradients, but they must satisfy a number of requirements and, in particular, they must exhibit high spatial resolution. With the aim of developing a dosimetric system adequate for 2D pre-treatment dose verifications, we designed a modular dosimetric device based on a monolithic silicon-segmented module. State and results of this work in progress are described in this article. The first 441 pixels, 6.29×6.29 cm2 silicon module has been produced by ion implantation on a 50 μm thick p-type epitaxial layer. This sensor has been connected to a discrete readout electronics performing current integration, and has been tested with satisfactory results. In the final configuration, nine silicon modules will be assembled together to cover an area close to 20×20 cm2 with 3969 channels. In this case, the readout electronics will be based on an ASIC capable to read 64 channels by performing current-to-frequency conversion.