Characterization and performances of a monitoring ionization chamber dedicated to IBA-universal irradiation head for Pencil Beam Scanning

Every radiotherapy center has to be equipped with real-time beam monitoring devices. In 2008, the medical application group from the Laboratory of Corpuscular Physics (LPC Caen) developed an Ionization Chamber in collaboration with the company IBA (Ion Beam Applications). This monitoring device called IC2/3 was developed to be used in IBAs universal irradiation head for Pencil Beam Scanning (PBS). The objectives presented in this article are to characterize the IC2/3 monitor in the energy and ux ranges used in protontherapy. The equipment has been tested with an IBAs cyclotronable to deliver proton beams from 70 to 230 MeV. This beam monitoring device has been validated and is now installed at the Westdeutsches Protonentherapiezentrum Essen protontherapy center (WPE, Germany). The results obtained in both terms of spatial resolution and dose measurements are at least equal to the initials speci cations needed for PBS purposes. The detector measures the dose with a relative precision better than 1% in the range 0.5 Gy/min to 8 Gy/min while the spatial resolution is higher than 250 m. The technology has been patented and ve IC2/3 chambers were delivered to IBA. Nowadays, IBA produces the IC2/3 beam monitoring device as part of its Proteus 235 produc