radiotherapy detector

Lexitek is developing patent-pending detectors for hadron (proton and ion) radiotherapy. The rapid growth of hadron therapy requires better radiation detectors to enable new treatment modalities and provide Quality Assurance (QA) for treatment plans.

These detectors use a scintillator and an imaging camera. A robust scintillator with excellent linearity and very fast time response converts a small fraction of the beam energy into light. An imaging system produces a high SNR image that can be correlated to intended radiation dose.  This detector has advantages over alternative detectors:

• Optical imaging yields sub-millimeter resolution
• A thin scintillator minimally scatters and attenuates the beam
• Components in the beam are robust and inexpensive to replace
• Very fast scintillator response enables rapid beam tracking

The detectors, in different configurations, have the following applications:

• Real-time monitoring of scanning hadron beams for safety and dosimetry
• Measurement of scanned or scattered hadron fields for Quality Assurance.

This development is being carried out with our colleagues at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Francis H. Burr Proton Therapy Center.