Bidimensional silicon dosimeter: Development and characterization

Clinical dosimetry in radiotherapy is a well known matter but high conformal radiotherapy modalities (Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT), stereotactic treatments with photons and protons, Intensity Modulated Proton Therapy (IMPT)) possess problems due to small radiation fields with high dose gradients, variation in space and time of the dose rate and variation in space and time of the beam energy spectrum. A modular dosimetric detector, adequate for 2D pre-treatment dose verifications, has been developed in the framework of the European Integrated project MAESTRO. The detector is a monolithic segmented sensor obtained by n-type implantation on a 50 mu thick epitaxial silicon p-type layer: this is later used to guarantee improved radiation hardness of the device against the accumulated dose. The detector is composed of a matrix of 21 x 21 pixels with a size of 2 x 2 mm(2) each and a 3 mm center-to-center distance. A full dosimetric characterization of the detector was performed with photon and proton beams and with gammas from a (60)Co unit. Results have been compared with those obtained with a Farmer and a CC13 Scanditronix/Welhoffer ion chamber as well as with the silicon matrix MapCHECK (TM). The first application of the MAESTRO prototype in the dosimetric verification of a clinical IMRT field is also reported. Results show that our modular detector represents a valuable tool for quality assurance in IMRT dose delivery and for high precision radiotherapy techniques.