Single-Pulse Measurement Electronics for Accurate Dosimetry in X-ray Radiation Therapy

This work aims at describing a dose-measurement system based on a high-quality single-crystal synthetic diamond coupled to specifically-designed front-end electronics and timing circuitry. By exploiting the pulsed nature of radiation sourced by LINACs, the electronics performs a synchronous detection of charge-carriers generated by the diamond detector on which pulsed X-rays impinge. Synchronous detection would assure superior level of accuracy, sensitivity, and dynamics in comparison to conventional continuous-integration solutions, since the measurements are affected by environmental noise to a lesser extent. In addition, preliminary characterization described in this paper highlights the feasibility of a measurement system capable of providing information on the dose delivered at the level of a single X-ray pulse. In this context, the proposed system would be able to respond to the specific needs of accurate dose diagnostics for modern radiotherapy treatments where radiation-dose is characterized by a complex shaped distribution and steep gradients.