Impact of a monolithic silicon detector operating in transmission mode on clinical photon beams

To investigate the effect on surface dose, as a function of different field sizes and distances from the solid water phantom to transmission detector (D_sd), of using the monolithic silicon detector MP512T in transmission mode.

The influence of operating the MP512T in transmission mode on the surface dose of a phantom for SSD 100cm was evaluated by using a Markus IC. The MP512T was fixed to an adjustable stand holder and was positioned at different D_sd, ranging from 0.3 to 24 cm. For each D_sd, measurements were carried out for irradiation field sizes of 5 × 5cm², 8 × 8 cm² and 10 × 10 cm². Measurements were obtained under two different operational setups, (i) with the MP512T face-up and (ii) with the MP512T face-down. In addition, the transmission factors for the MP512T and the printed circuit board were only evaluated using a Farmer IC.

For all D_sd and all field sizes, the MP512T led to the surface dose increasing by less than 25% when in the beam. For D_sd >18 cm the surface dose increase is less than 5%, and negligible for field size 5 × 5 cm². The difference in the surface dose perturbation for the MP512T operating face up or operating face down is negligible (<2%) for all field sizes. The transmission factor of the MP512T ranged from 1.020 to 0.9950 for all measured D_sd and field sizes.

The study demonstrated that positioning the MP512T in air between the Linac head and the phantom produced negligible perturbation of the surface dose for D_sd >18 cm, and was completely transparent for 6 MV photon beams.