Finding an improved amorphous-silicon x-ray flat-panel detector configuration for the in-line geometry

We have previously investigated the use of a conventional amorphous-silicon flat-panel detector (FPD) for intrafractional image guidance in the in-line geometry. In this configuration, the FPD is mounted between the patient and the treatment head, with the front of the FPD facing towards the patient. By geometrically separating signals from the diagnostic (kV) and treatment (MV) beams, it is possible to monitor the patient and treatment beam at the same time. In this study, we propose an FPD design based on existing technology with a 70% reduced up-stream areal density that is more suited to this new application. We have investigated our FPD model by means of a validated Monte Carlo simulation. Experimentally, simple rectangular fields were used to irradiate through the detector and observe the impact of removing detector components such as the support structure or the phosphor screen on the measured signal. The proposed FPD performs better than the conventional FPD: (i) attenuation of the MV beam is decreased by 60%; (ii) the MV signal is reduced by 20% for the primary MV field region which can avoid saturation of the FPD; and (iii) long range scatter from the MV into the kV region of the detector is greatly reduced. (paper)