Development of data acquisition system for multi channel dosimetry in the quality assurance of microbeam radiation therapy

In this research project a DAQ (Data Acquisition) system was developed for use with a new 128 channel, silicon strip detector (SSD) which was designed at the Centre for Medical Radiation Physics (CMRP) University of Wollongong. Software for the data acquisition has been developed using the graphical programming language LabVIEW to readout and display, in real-time, the calibrated and normalised detector response of all 128 channels. In addition to this, was the development of software features, and related hardware that initiate a treatment beam dump should the measured instantaneous dose rate go above a predetermined threshold in any of the 128 channels. Testing of the system was carried out in a clinical setting, a medical LINAC and a research clinical environment, Synchrotron X-ray microbeam radiation therapy. The system was fully characterised and demonstrated excellent performance in both the above clinical treatment settings, and has since been utilized in other clinical settings where high spatial resolution detectors and real-time readout are required for quality assurance in radiotherapy.