DREAM

Silicon carbide array DetectoR for dose profilE meAsureMents at FLASH regimes

DREAM is a multi-channel detector based on an array of thin silicon carbide (SiC) sensors with high spatial resolution, designed for real-time measurement of transverse dose and instantaneous dose rate distributions of electron and proton beams in FLASH radiotherapy applications.

FLASH radiotherapy is based on the delivery of a dose with very short pulses at a much higher instantaneous rate than conventional radiotherapy; this makes it possible to reduce the damage to healthy tissue with the same efficacy of the treatment. Such a high dose rate, however, is not compatible with traditional dosimetric techniques, posing new technological challenges in this field.

Silicon carbide detectors represent a promising compromise between the maturity of silicon and the robustness of diamond detectors, showing several advantages such as the high efficiency of collection of the charges produced by radiation.
 
DREAM leverages SiC detector technology to realize an innovative array of thin (<10 µm) and small (1 mm radius) SiCs for real-time measurement of the side dose profiles of ultra-high dose rate (UHDR) beams which, if carried out with a single detector moving along the x-y directions, would imply a total delivered dose so high as to pose serious radiation protection risks.
 
To respond to these problems, the developed array has an innovative asymmetric and irregular geometry, in order to increase the spatial resolution, minimizing the total number of detectors and reducing the total dose necessary for the complete measurement. <