Proton Calorimetry/Experimental Runs/2025/Prague 2025-04

Experiment Equipment

Item	Notes
Portable Enclosure	Modified Small Peli Case Wheeled. Features mount for scintillator stacks, front and back openings for beam, patch panel with ports. Mylar windows with 3D printed alignment plates: approximately light-tight.
Rev. E Scintillator stack 1 (with Rev. E boards no. 1 (L) and 4 (R))	32 X x 105 mm, Y x 105 mm and Z x (approx) 3 mm sheets (mix of opaque and machined sheets).
Rev. E Scintillator stack 2 (with Rev. E boards no. 3 (L) and 9 (R))	32 X x 105 mm, Y x 105 mm and Z x (approx) 3 mm sheets (just machined sheets with the closest to ideal thicknesses ~3mm).
Rev. E Scintillator stack 3 (with Rev. E boards no. 5 (L) and 6 (R))	32 X x 105 mm, Y x 105 mm and Z x (approx) 3 mm sheets (mix of opaque and machined sheets).
Rev. E Scintillator stack 4 (spare stack not installed)	32 X x 105 mm, Y x 105 mm and Z x (approx) 3 mm sheets (mix of opaque, machined, and injection moulded sheets - stacked in pairs in alternating directions).
Rev. E Scintillator stack 5 (with Rev. E boards no. 7 (L) and 10 (R))	32 X x 105 mm, Y x 105 mm and Z x (approx) 3 mm sheets mix of opaque, machined, and injection moulded sheets - stacked in pairs in alternating directions).
Rev. E Texas Instruments DDC232 custom circuit board (x9 - 8 installed in modules 1,2,3,5 and one spare)	Housing 32x Hamamatsu S12915-16R photodiodes, coupled directly to scintillator sheets. Aligned by eye to scintillator sheets.
USB104 FPGA development board x 2 (1 main and 1 spare)	For interfacing between DDC232 and pi.
Raspberry pi5 x 2 (1 main and 1 spare)	Control data acquisition + visualise GUI.
Power Strip:	To connect FPGA and daughter board.
DAQ laptop x1	Back up option for data acquisition.
Control Laptop x2	1 for remote control (Sonia's MacBook Pro), 1 for notes/web GUI (Joe's MacBook Pro).
D-LINK Network Hub	Set in experimental room to connect pi5, DAQ laptop + NPL devices
GL-Inet Router	Set in control room to take output from experimental room ethernet connection. Control laptops connected via ethernet or 5GHz WiFi.
Ethernet Cable x4 (?)	To connect pi5 and DAQ laptop to network in the experimental room, hub to wall and in control room router to wall, and router to laptop.
MacBook Adapters x2: one for pi5 DAQ laptop one for DAQ laptop
Spare Cables:	Usb-C flexible cables, USB-C corded cables (and right-angles angled connector), USB-C to USB-A adapter, USB-C to USB-B adaptor, USB-A to USB-B cable, right-angles network cables. power cables
Gloves	For handling scintillator

Experiment Plan

Saturday 26th April

1) Shoot-through of each scintillator stack at 250 MeV to check prior calibration. 50mm absorber (?) -> scint stack -> water dump/IBA Zebra or Giraffe for simultaneous WET measurement. Both directions for stack so will rotate midway through.

2) Background measurement of scintillator stacks 1 - 5 (exc. 4 which is spare module)

-- UCL: Add calibration files to appropiate file for GUI

3) Rotate gantry to front of case. Full system check at 245 MeV with beam on axis.

4) Single spot SOBP across the entire range of energies that can be obtained from the nozzle. Beam on axis.

5) Single spot SOBP from 165 MeV to 120 MeV. Beam on axis.

3) 5 x 5 x 5cm box field, on axis from 12cm to 17cm deep.

4) Single layer with 5 x 5 grid of spots, 1cm spacing, with single spot dwell time of 500ms–1s

30,000 measurements ~ 5 secs for pristine Bragg peaks/shoot throughs.

1-2 mins per SOBP.

Experiment Notes

Original data will be saved in pi5: /home/pi/GUI/v3.01b/

A copy ot the hexadecimal files will be saved to: /unix/pbt/data/

For each run ... files will be generated:

• Run0xy.txt: raw hexadecimal data

• RunOxy_calibrated.txt: calibrated data with background subtraction. An average measurement is at the bottom with a run performed to it. Visualisation with acquisition on DAQ.html

• Run0xy_fitted_25Hz.txt: data averaged at 25Hz and fitted, with range and energy values extracted. This can be visualised in the REPLAY.html tab of the GUI.

• 50mm solid water absorber installed in front of QuARC for shoot-through calibration measurements

• In between Run 38 and 39, measurements taken with IBA Zebra with no QuARC and just 50 mm solid water than just Zebra (no absorber).

Run number	Stack No.	Beam Energy (MeV)	Current (nA)	Measurements	DDC232 FSR (pC)	DDC232 Integration Time (us)	Spot size (mm, FWHM)	Estimated Range (mm)	Comments
Saturday 26/04/2025
Machine QA Mode
0	No stack - just peli case	226MeV (shoot through front)	8 nA (?)	30000	12.5	170 (constant)	-	-	Without 50 mm solid water absorber
1	Stack #1	226MeV (shoot through front)	8 nA (?)	30000	12.5	170 (constant)	-	-	Without 50 mm solid water absorber and beam on time too short so only reading background for last measurements
2	Stack #1	245MeV (shoot through front)	8 nA	30000	12.5	170 (constant)	-	-	With 50 mm solid water absorber and beam mode changed to continuous i.e. beam on before starting and after ending measurements) at clinical current (8 nA)
3	Stack #1	245MeV (shoot through front)	8 nA	30000	12.5	170 (constant)	-	-	repeat of run002 - zebra measurement: 16.76 cm
4	Stack #1	background (back pos.)		30000	12.5	170 (constant)	-	-	-
5	Stack #1	245MeV (shoot through back)	8 nA	30000	12.5	170 (constant)	-	-	zebra measurement: 16.76 cm
6	Stack #2	245MeV (shoot through front)	8 nA	30000	12.5	170 (constant)	-	-	note dead photodiode on centre of left board. zebra measurement: 16.68 cm
7	Stack #2	background (back)	nA	30000	12.5	170 (constant)	-	-	-
8	Stack #2	shoot through back	8 nA	30000	12.5	170 (constant)	-	-	-
9	Stack #3	background front	nA	30000	12.5	170 (constant)	-	-	-
10	Stack #3	shoot through front	8 nA	30000	12.5	170 (constant)	-	-	zebra measurement: cm
11	Stack #3	background back		30000	12.5	170 (constant)	-	-	-
12	Stack #3	shoot through back	8 nA	30000	12.5	170 (constant)	-	-	zebra measurement: cm
13	Stack #4	background front	nA	30000	12.5	170 (constant)	-	-	-
14	Stack #4	shoot through front	8 nA	30000	12.5	170 (constant)	-	-	zebra measurement: cm
15	Stack #4	background back	nA	30000	12.5	170 (constant)	-	-	-
16	Stack #4	shoot through back	8 nA	30000	12.5	170 (constant)	-	-	zebra measurement: cm
17	Stack #1 -2	background		30000	12.5	170 (constant)	-	-	noise on cabling
18	Stack #1-4	background	nA	30000	12.5	170 (constant)	-	-	-
19	Stack #1-4	226 MeV (max)	140 nA	30000	12.5	170 (constant)	-	-	just 4 boards (so one sided) but acquiring with requesting 8
20	Stack #1-4	226 MeV (max)	140 nA	30000	12.5	170 (constant)	-	-	just 4 boards (so one sided) but acquiring with requesting 8. attempting applying one sided calibration
21	Stack #1-4	226 MeV (max)	140 nA	30000	12.5	170 (constant)	-	-	just 4 boards (so one sided) but acquiring with requesting 8. attempting applying one sided calibration
22	Stack #1-4	background	140 nA	30000	12.5	170 (constant)	-	-	just 4 boards (so one sided) but acquiring with requesting 8 - sticking with displaying uncalibrated data and will post-process calibration
23	Stack #1-4	200 MeV (?) or 226 MeV	140 nA	30000	12.5	170 (constant)	-	-	just 4 boards (so one sided) but acquiring with requesting 8 - sticking with displaying uncalibrated data and will post-process calibration
24	Stack #1-4	180 MeV (?) or 200 MeV	140 nA	30000	12.5	170 (constant)	-	-	just 4 boards (so one sided) but acquiring with requesting 8 - sticking with displaying uncalibrated data and will post-process calibration
25	Stack #1-4	180 MeV	140 nA	30000	12.5	170 (constant)	-	-	just 4 boards (so one sided) but acquiring with requesting 8 - sticking with displaying uncalibrated data and will post-process calibration
26	Stack #1-4	160 MeV	140 nA	30000	12.5	170 (constant)	-	-	just 4 boards (so one sided) but acquiring with requesting 8 - sticking with displaying uncalibrated data and will post-process calibration
27	Stack #1-4	160 MeV	140 nA	30000	12.5 - 50	170 (constant)	-	-	just 4 boards (so one sided) but acquiring with requesting 8 - sticking with displaying uncalibrated data and will post-process calibration beam lost part way at end and FSR wasn't fully updated at start?
28	Stack #1-4	160 MeV	140 nA	30000	50	170 (constant)	-	-
29	Stack #1-4	140 MeV	140 nA	30000	50	170 (constant)	-	-	just 4 boards (so one sided) but acquiring with requesting 8 - sticking with displaying uncalibrated data and will post-process calibration. Wanting to drop current as starting to see saturation on boards - was not aware they were operating last around 140 nA for pristine Bragg peaks - had assumed 8 nA (clinical current)
30	Stack #1-4	120 MeV	40 nA	30000	50	170 (constant)	-	-	just 4 boards (so one sided) but acquiring with requesting 8 - sticking with displaying uncalibrated data and will post-process calibration
31	Stack #1-4	120 MeV	40 nA	30000	50	170 (constant)	-	-	just 4 boards (so one sided) but acquiring with requesting 8 - sticking with displaying uncalibrated data and will post-process calibration
32	Stack #1-4	background		30000	50	170 (constant)	-	-	just 4 boards (so one sided) but acquiring with requesting 8 - sticking with displaying uncalibrated data and will post-process calibration
33	Stack #1-4	100 MeV	40 nA	30000	50	170 (constant)	-	-	just 4 boards (so one sided) but acquiring with requesting 8 - sticking with displaying uncalibrated data and will post-process calibration
34	Stack #1-4	80 MeV	40 nA	30000	50	170 (constant)	-	-	just 4 boards (so one sided) but acquiring with requesting 8 - sticking with displaying uncalibrated data and will post-process calibration
35	Stack #1-4	80 MeV	40 nA	30000	12.5	170 (constant)	-	-	just 4 boards (so one sided) but acquiring with requesting 8 - sticking with displaying uncalibrated data and will post-process calibration
36	Stack #1-4	background		30000	12.5	170 (constant)	-	-	just 4 boards (so one sided) but acquiring with requesting 8 - sticking with displaying uncalibrated data and will post-process calibration
37	Stack #1-4	background		30000	50	170 (constant)	-	-	just 4 boards (so one sided) but acquiring with requesting 8 - sticking with displaying uncalibrated data and will post-process calibration
38	Stack #1-4	Single spot SOBP across the entire range of energies that can be obtained from the nozzle (). 5 Gy	? nA	1 min ( stopped at 40%)	50	170 (constant)	-	-	just 4 boards (so one sided) but acquiring with requesting 8 - sticking with displaying uncalibrated data and will post-process calibration - total plan time was about 34s, started before beam stopped at 40% - appears display rate of GUI was too slow - raw data saved fine. Note that Vlad said the TPS for this plan sees the single spot SOBP as 3 fields and superimposes them to create SOBP.
39	Stack #1-2 (dual-sided with 4 boards)	background		30000	12.5	170 (constant)	-	-	moving to two modules with 4 boards. Braided USB-C to USB-C cable used to connect the two boards on stack 2 via the back of the stack.
40	Stack #1-2 (dual-sided with 4 boards)	160-120 MeV SOBP	nA	1 min ( )	50	170 (constant)	-	-
41	Stack #1-2 (dual-sided with 4 boards)	background		30000	50	170 (constant)	-	-
42	Stack #1-2 (dual-sided with 4 boards)	160 MeV pristine Bragg beak	40 nA	30000	50	170 (constant)	-	-	10s beam on time
43	Stack #1-2 (dual-sided with 4 boards)	20 Gy 5x5 box field	nA	1 min ( )	50	170 (constant)	-	-	around 300s beam on time, set QuARC acquisition time to 900s and stopped around 35 %