SU-E-I-109: Sensitivity Analysis of an Electronic Portal Imaging Device Monte Carlo Model to Variations in Optical Transport Parameters.

Abstract

To investigate the sensitivity of a Monte Carlo (MC) model of a standard clinical amorphous silicon (a-Si) electron portal imaging device (EPID) to variations in optical photon transport parameters. The Geant4 MC toolkit was used to develop a comprehensive model of an indirect-detection a-Si EPID incorporating x-ray and optical photon transport. The EPID was modeled as a series of uniform layers with properties specified by the manufacturer (PerkinElmer, Santa Clara, CA) of a research EPID at our centre. Optical processes that were modeled include bulk absorption, Rayleigh scattering, and boundary processes (reflection and refraction). Model performance was evaluated by scoring optical photons absorbed by the a-Si photodiode as a function of radial distance from a point source of x-rays on an event-by-event basis (0.025 mm resolution). Primary x-ray energies were sampled from a clinical 6 MV photon spectrum. Simulations were performed by varying optical transport parameters and the resulting point spread functions (PSFs) were compared. The optical parameters investigated include: x-ray transport cutoff thresholds; absorption path length; optical energy spectrum; refractive indices; and the 'roughness' of boundaries within phosphor screen layers. The transport cutoffs and refractive indices studied were found to minimally affect resulting PSFs. A monoenergetic optical spectrum slightly broadened the PSF in comparison with the use of a polyenergetic spectrum. The absorption path length only significantly altered the PSF when decreased drastically. Variations in the treatment of boundaries noticeably broadened resulting PSFs. Variation in optical transport parameters was found to affect resulting PSF calculations. Current work is focusing on repeating this analysis with a coarser resolution more typical of a commercial a-Si EPID to observe if these effects continue to alter the EPID PSF. Experimental measurement of the EPID line spread function to validate these results is also underway. Cancer Institute NSW Research Equipment Grants 10/REG/1-20 and 10/REG/1-10 Cancer Council NSW Grant, ID RG 11-06 NHMRC Project Grant, ID569211 The University of Sydney Postgraduate Research Scholarship in Medical Physics SWSCS Radiation Oncology Student Scholarship, 2012.