Single and multichannel scintillating fiber dosimeter for radiotherapic beams with SiPM readout

The treatment of many neoplastic diseases requires the use of radiotherapy, which consists in the irradiation of the tumor, identified as the target volume, with ionizing radiations generated both by administered radiopharmaceuticals or by linear particle accelerators (LINACs). The radiotherapy beam delivered to the patient must be regularly checked to assure the best tumor control probability: this task is performed with dosimeters, i.e. devices able to provide a measurement of the dose deposited in their sensitive volume. This paper describes the development of two scintillator dosimeter prototypes for radiotherapic applications based on plastic scintillating fibers read out by high dynamic range Silicon PhotoMultipliers. The first dosimeter, consisting of a single-channel prototype with a pair of optical fibers, a scintillating and a white one, read out by two SiPMs, has been fully characterized and led to the development of a second multi-channel dosimeter based on an array of scintillating fibers: this device represents the first step towards the assembly of a “one-shot” device, capable to perform some of the daily quality controls in a few seconds. The dosimeters characterization was performed with a Varian Clinac iX linear accelerator at the Radiotherapy Department of the St. Anna Hospital in Como (IT).