The magic cube and the pixel ionization chamber: detectors for monitor and dosimetry of radiotherapy beams

Abstract Tumor therapy takes advantage of the energy deposition of radiation to concentrate high doses in the target while sparing healthy tissue. Elective pathologies for highly conformal radiotherapies such as photon Intensity Modulated Radiotherapy (IMRT) and radiotherapy with hadrons are head and neck, eye, prostate and in general all tumors that are either deep or located close to critical organs. In the world there are several centers that are using such techniques and a common problem that is being experienced is the verification of treatment plans and monitoring of the beam. We have designed and built two detectors that allow 2D and 3D measurements of dose and fluence of such beams. The detectors allow measurements on big surfaces, up to 25 ∗ 25 cm 2 . The active media are parallel plate, strip and pixel segmented ionization chambers with front-end Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) readout and PC based data acquistion. The description of dosimeter, chamber and electronics will be given with results from beam tests and therapy plan verification.