Characteristics of a new parallel plate microchamber explicitly designed for high spatial resolution, Bragg-Gray cavity measurements of small photon beams

Mark Pankuch, James Chu, John Spokas, Jerry Soen

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

A new parallel plate ionization microchamber has been designed to specifically address problems of small beam dosimetry. The chamber's extremely small, well-defined volume and tissue equivalency, closely approximate ideal Bragg-Gray cavity conditions. This allows the chamber to be used as a theoretically sound measuring tool in regions where electron equilibrium ceases to exist. Results show the parallel plate microchamber to be a simple, reproducible and easy to use device in the measurement of total scatter factors, percent depth doses and off axis ratios. The microchamber demonstrates a decreased volume effect when measuring stereotatic cone output factors. The small well-defined volume of the chamber improves spatial resolution and artificial penumbral broadening when measuring off axis ratios. The small volume of the chamber magnifies the influence of radiation induced cable currents. However with careful experimental technique, this problem can be completely resolved.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1688-1691
Number of pages4
JournalAnnual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology - Proceedings
Volume3
DOIs
StatePublished - 2000
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Ionization chamber
  • Radiation detectors
  • Small field dosimetry

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Signal Processing
  • Biomedical Engineering
  • Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
  • Health Informatics

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Characteristics of a new parallel plate microchamber explicitly designed for high spatial resolution, Bragg-Gray cavity measurements of small photon beams'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this