Modeling charge collection in silicon pixel detectors for proton therapy applications

<i>Objective.</i>Monolithic active pixel sensors are used for charged particle tracking in many applications, from medical physics to astrophysics. The Bergen pCT collaboration designed a sampling calorimeter for proton computed tomography, based entirely on the ALICE PIxel DEtector (ALPIDE). The same telescope can be used for in-situ range verification in particle therapy. An accurate charge diffusion model is required to convert the deposited energy from Monte Carlo simulations to a cluster of pixels, and to estimate the deposited energy, given an experimentally observed cluster.<i>Approach.</i>We optimize the parameters of different charge diffusion models to experimental data for both proton computed tomography and proton range verification, collected at the Danish Centre for Particle Therapy. We then evaluate the performance of downstream tasks to investigate the impact of charge diffusion modeling.<i>Main results.</i>We find that it is beneficial to optimize application-specific models, with a power law working best for proton computed tomography, and a model based on a 2D Cauchy-Lorentz distribution giving better agreement for range verification. We further highlight the importance of evaluating the downstream tasks with multiple approaches to obtain a range of expected performance metrics for the application.<i>Significance.</i>This work demonstrates the influence of the charge diffusion model on downstream tasks, and recommends a new model for proton range verification with an ALPIDE-based pixel telescope.

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Publication Details

Journal
Biomedical Physics & Engineering Express
Published
2025-03-12
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1088/2057-1976/adbf9c
Primary Topic
Radiation Therapy and Dosimetry
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Modeling charge collection in silicon pixel detectors for proton therapy applications

Joao Seco, O.H. Odland, T. Bodova, Jacob Johansen et al.
Biomedical Physics & Engineering Express
Radiation Therapy and Dosimetry
article

Modeling charge collection in silicon pixel detectors for proton therapy applications

Joao Seco, O.H. Odland, T. Bodova, Jacob Johansen, Helge Egil Seime Pettersen, Ákos Sudár, I. Tymchuk, V. Borshchov, Ganesh Jagannath Tambave, Pierluigi Piersimoni, Nicolas R. Gauger, Max Philip Rauch, Alexander Schilling, C. Kobdaj, Arnon Songmoolnak, K. Ullaland, R. Keidel, Tobias Kortus, M. Protsenko, Г. Феофилов, Christoph Garth, Shruti Mehendale, G. Bíró, Raju Ningappa Mulawade, George C. O’Neill, Max Aehle, Viktor Leonhardt, S. Yang, RenZheng Xiao, Gábor Papp, S. N. Igolkin, Joshua Santana, A. van den Brink, Dieter Röhrich, H. Helstrup, O. S. Groettvik, Viljar Nilsen Eikeland, Mónika Varga-Kőfaragó, Attiq Ur Rehman, Boris Wagner, Matthias Rudolph Richter, J. Alme, G. G. Barnaföldi, T. Peitzmann
article en

Abstract

<i>Objective.</i>Monolithic active pixel sensors are used for charged particle tracking in many applications, from medical physics to astrophysics. The Bergen pCT collaboration designed a sampling calorimeter for proton computed tomography, based entirely on the ALICE PIxel DEtector (ALPIDE). The same telescope can be used for in-situ range verification in particle therapy. An accurate charge diffusion model is required to convert the deposited energy from Monte Carlo simulations to a cluster of pixels, and to estimate the deposited energy, given an experimentally observed cluster.<i>Approach.</i>We optimize the parameters of different charge diffusion models to experimental data for both proton computed tomography and proton range verification, collected at the Danish Centre for Particle Therapy. We then evaluate the performance of downstream tasks to investigate the impact of charge diffusion modeling.<i>Main results.</i>We find that it is beneficial to optimize application-specific models, with a power law working best for proton computed tomography, and a model based on a 2D Cauchy-Lorentz distribution giving better agreement for range verification. We further highlight the importance of evaluating the downstream tasks with multiple approaches to obtain a range of expected performance metrics for the application.<i>Significance.</i>This work demonstrates the influence of the charge diffusion model on downstream tasks, and recommends a new model for proton range verification with an ALPIDE-based pixel telescope.

Biomedical Physics & Engineering ExpressVol. 11(3)
Eötvös Loránd University (HU), University of Applied Sciences Worms (DE), University of Kaiserslautern (DE), China Three Gorges University (CN), National Institute of Science Education and Research (IN), St Petersburg University (RU), German Cancer Research Center (DE), Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (NO), Utrecht University (NL), Aarhus University (DK), Heidelberg University (DE), Haukeland University Hospital (NO), University of Koblenz and Landau (DE), Aarhus University Hospital (DK), Budapest University of Technology and Economics (HU), National Institute for Subatomic Physics (NL), Saint Camillus International University of Health and Medical Sciences (IT), Energostal (Ukraine) (UA), HUN-REN Wigner Research Centre for Physics (HU), University of Bergen (NO), University of Applied Sciences Kaiserslautern (DE), Suranaree University of Technology (TH)
Norges Forskningsråd
Peace, Justice and strong institutions
Openalex Percentile: Top 93%
Radiation Therapy and Dosimetry
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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