By

Vibha Chaswal, Ph.D.

The ion-chamber should be tested along with

the electrometer and the cable it is going to get
used with
For reproducibility of results the ion-chamber
should also be tested against dierent
electrometers and the results should have
minimum variability
It is important to be aware of various sources of
noise in the system that contribute to charge-
collection at the ion-chamber electrodes in
addition to charge collected due to ionizations
by radiation

 Acceptance testing is recommended when

the chamber is back from ADCL before using

it for reference or absolute dosimetry.

PTW 0.6cc SN1315 farmer type ion-chamber by PTW FREIBERG. Model #

TN 30013-1315

 IC set-up: 100 cm SSD; ion-chamber active

volume at the center of a 20cmx20cm eld;

solid-water phantom with 1.5 cm build-up
and 5 cm back scatter
Electrometer: -300 V (-100%) bias
Energy: 6 MV photon beam
Procedure: Record charge collection
measurements for MU delivery ranging
between 2 MU to 200 MU

The uncertainty in the charge collection due to

stem eect should be less than 0.5%
This can be checked by taking exposures using a
eld size that irradiates just the thimble and
comparing it with charge collection reading
taken when the whole stem is in the eld.
Set up: 100 cm SSD; FS 5cmx30cm; tape the IC in
two orientations IC parallel to the 30 cm dim of
eld, IC perpendicular to it with only thimble
inside direct radiation beam

 stem eect slightly greater than 0.5% but 5cmx30cm has greater
penumbra uncertainties repeat test using 7cmx30cm or 10cmx30cm FS

stem eect is 0.2%, within manufactures specications

 Collect charge readings using both bias polarities

with all other set-up parameters constant

 Which means check the cylindrical symmetry

of the ion chambers active volumes

construction
Ion chamber suspended in-air with the ion
chambers build-up cap on
This provides same build-up from all dierent
directions of irradiation

(left) Ion chamber major axis perpendicular to the CAX. (right) Ion chamber major
axis parallel to the CAX.

ion chamber response for an orientation perpendicular to the central beam axis

Ion chamber response for an orientation parallel to the central beam axis

(Set up: 10 x 10 field, 100 SAD, 06 MV X-rays, 100 MU, CAX parallel)

 Measurements involving ionizing current at 2

dierent voltages are used to assess the

collection eciency of an ion chamber [Boag
2-volatge technique]
This is Pion or recombination correction
factor [TG 51]
Use electrometer 100 % and 50 % voltage

settings using negative and positive bias (Vh

and Vl settings)

Collection Eciency (Pion):

A feel of your ion chamber

Physicists extended hand and mind in clinical reference
dosimetry
JEBs way of keeping things in head for an easy reference

*Average nC/cc MU for a 0.6 cc farmers chamber = 0.2092 nC/cc/ MU
*Average nC/cc MU for a 0.125 cc farmers chamber = 0.1833 nC/cc/ MU
*Average nC/cc MU for a 0.015 cc farmers chamber = 0.1714 nC/cc /MU
OR, simply put
.the average charge collected per cubic centimeter of the chambers
active volume for a monitor unit of radiation is roughly ~0.2 nC
So, expected charge collection for 100 MU ~ 20 nC..right, Happy Physicist!

* Averages derived from detailed linearity measurements using 3 chamber types

The SNR is derived from the same irradiation data set

over the three ion-chambers
SNR = mean signal (your data)/ Std Deviation
SNR test Results observations:
SNR generally increases with the increase in Signal
Normalized SNR values show that the SNR decreases
with the decrease in ion chamber collection volume
(reason I wouldnt try to use a 0.015 cc ion-chamber to
assess doses at very low signals)
At 10 MU using 0.015 pin-point - noise and the
detected signal are almost equal


1.
2.
3.

To quantify the leakage from various components the

following were quantied:
Ionizations in the ion-chamber cable in the eld
Ionizations in the triax cable in the eld
Leakage when no irradiation but power supply is on.
This was quantied with and without the ion-
chamber being connected to the electrometer.
Leakage only due to electrometer electronics can be
characterized by letting the electrometers run on
battery for a given duration of time without any
connecting wires or ion-chamber.