The use of multi-gap resistive plate chambers for in-beam PET in proton and carbon ion therapy

On-line verification of the delivered dose during proton and carbon ion radiotherapy is currently a very desirable goal for quality assurance of hadron therapy treatment plans. In-beam positron emission tomography (ibPET), which can provide an image of the β+ activity induced in the patient during irradiation, which in turn is correlated to the range of the ion beam, is one of the modalities for achieving this goal. Application to hadron therapy requires that the scanner geometry be modified from that which is used in nuclear medicine. In particular, PET detectors that allow a sub-nanosecond time-of-flight (TOF) registration of the collinear photons have been proposed. Inclusion of the TOF information in PET data leads to more effective PET sensitivity. Considering the challenges inherent in the ibPET technique, namely limited β+ activity and the effect of biological washout due to blood flow, TOF-PET technologies are very attractive. In this context, the TERA Foundation is investigating the use of resistive plate chambers (RPC) for an ibPET application because of their excellent timing properties and low cost. In this paper we present a novel compact multi-gap RPC (MRPC) module design and construction method, which considering the large number of modules that would be needed to practically implement a high-sensitivity RPC-PET scanner, could be advantageous. Moreover, we give an overview of the efficiency and timing measurements that have been obtained in the laboratory using such single-gap and multi-gap RPC modules.