Proton Calorimetry/Experimental Runs/2024/UCLHQuADProBe 2024-04
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. D Scintillator stack 1 | 32 X x 105 mm, Y x 105 mm and Z x (approx) 3 mm sheets. Original injection moulded batch with polished edges and sanded faces. Containing sheets (ascending photodiode order, board upside down): 137, 138, 139, 140, 141, 142, 143, 144, 145, 146, 147, 148, 149, 150, 151, 152, 153, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158, 159, 160, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165, 166, 167, 168. Full stack thickness measurements (in mm): 95.75, 96.02, 96.09 = 95.95 |
| Rev. D Scintillator stack 2 | 32 X x 105 mm, Y x 105 mm and Z x (approx) 3 mm sheets. Machined block with polished edges and sanded faces. Containing sheets (ascending photodiode order, board upside down): 289, 268, 291, 277, 300, 264, 282, 276, 271, 285, 262, 280, 295, 281, 297, 290, 270, 284, 294, 299, 269, 302, 301, 296, 287, 263, 288, 293, 286, 265, 275, 292. Full stack thickness measurements (in mm): 96.89, 96.85, 96.70 = 96.81 |
| Rev. D Texas Instruments DDC232 custom circuit board (x2) | Housing 32x Hamamatsu S12915-16R photodiodes, coupled directly to scintillator sheets. Aligned by eye to scintillator sheets. |
| Nexys Video FPGA development board. | For interfacing between DDC232 and pi. |
| Raspberry pi5 | 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, 1 for notes/web GUI. |
| 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 |
| Gloves | For handling scintillator |
Schematic
Experiment Plan
1st Day: Tuesday 30th of April
2nd Day: Wednesday 1st of May
1) Shoot-through of old scintillator stack at 250MeV to check prior calibration. 50mm absorber -> scint stack -> pixel sensor -> TC -> water dump. Both directions for stack so will rotate midway through.
2) Shoot-through calibration of new scintillator stack 1 at 250MeV. 50mm absorber -> scint stack -> pixel sensor -> TC -> water dump. Both directions for stack so will rotate midway through.
3) Shoot-through calibration of new scintillator stack 1 at 250MeV. 50mm absorber -> scint stack 2 -> scint stack 1 -> pixel sensor -> TC -> water dump. Both directions for stack so will rotate midway through. Full QuARC cabling complete here.
3a) Background measurement of scintillator stacks 1+2
-- UCL: Add calibration files to appropiate file for GUI
4) Rotate gantry to front of case. Full system check at 160MeV with beam on axis. Check readout of TC and pixel sensor.
5) Range tests with on-axis beam at 70, 90, 110, 130, 150 and 170 MeV. Beam on axis.
6) TC calibration with 1 second beams at 110 MeV and 160 MeV.
7) Position tests for pixel sensor with manual adjustments in couch position. Check QuARC readout for nonlinearities.
8) Treatment plan single position range scan (if available from UCLH).
9) Treatment plan box field scan for 3 x 3 x 3cm and 5 x 5 x 5cm volumes (if available from UCLH).
10) Brain tumour scan (if available from UCLH).
If none of the treatment plans are available we may have to go through and do some of the position/energy steps manually.
Experiment Notes
Original data will be saved in pi5: /home/pi/GUI/v3.01b/UCLH/
A copy ot the hexadecimal files will be saved to: /unix/pbt/data/uclh
For each run three 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.
Technical Notes:
- 1 Photodiode in stack #3 broken (either the first or the end one) prior to the beam test.
- Position of the couch: -11.80cm, +82.20cm, 0.00cm, 0˚, 0˚, 0˚
- Position of the Gantry: +90˚, +42.10cm
- Stack connected using USB-C (long cable (1m Wuerth Elektronik) in the peli case, and short cable (15cm Multicomp Pro Short) is outside the peli case)
- FPGA and FMC Daughter board is located outside the peli case.
- Calibrated and fitted data of stack #3 is using photodiode position of stack #1, so it needs to be corrected in post processing.
| Run number | Detector | Beam Energy (MeV) | Current (nA) | Measurements | DDC232 FSR (pC) | DDC232 Integration Time (us) | Spot size (mm, FWHM) | Estimated Range (mm) | Comments | Photodiode QB Fit | Replay Fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | Stack #3 | Background | - | 30000 | 12.5 | 170 (constant) | - | - | - | - | |
| 1 | Stack #3 | 245MeV | 10nA | 29412 | 12.5 | 170 (constant) | - | - | 50mm WET Absorber, Shoot through back | - | |
| 2 | Stack #3 | Background | - | 30000 | 12.5 | 170 (constant) | - | - | Rotate the stack | - | |
| 3 | Stack #3 | 245MeV | 10nA | 29412 | 12.5 | 170 (constant) | - | - | 50mm WET Absorber, Rotate the stack (beam from the front) | - | |
| 4 | Stack #3 | 245MeV | 10nA | 29412 | 12.5 | 170 (constant) | - | - | 50mm WET Absorber, Rotate the stack (beam from the front) | - |