Optimization of ripple filter for pencil beam scanning

This paper presents a novel approach to seek the bar width for ripple filter used in pencil beam scanning proton therapy. A weight decay quadratic programming method is employed for the new optimization strategy. Compared to the commonly used iterative-least-square technique, the ripple filter derived by the proposed method not only has better depth dose uniformity, i.e., the dose uniformity is within 0.5%, but also has triangle-like vertical cross-sectional shape which is suitable for manufacture. Moreover, the new method has such good robust characteristics that it is also applicable to the real application with unavoidable measurement errors and noises. The simulation results of this study may be helpful in improving the design of the ripple filter. (authors)