Radiation monitor and method of monitoring radiation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10967201-B2
Application number	US-201716340696-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 15, 2017
Priority date	Dec 22, 2016
Publication date	Apr 6, 2021
Grant date	Apr 6, 2021

Abstract

A radiation monitor 1 includes a light-emitting unit 10 which generates light having an intensity depending on an amount of an incident radiation, an optical fiber 20 which sends a photon generated by the light-emitting unit 10, a photoelectric converter 30 which transmits one electric pulse to one sent photon, a dose calculation device 40 which counts the electric pulse amplified by the photoelectric converter 30 and converts the counted value of the measured electric pulses into a dose of the radiation, and a display device 50. The dose calculation device 40 counts the electric signals converted from the photon by the photoelectric converter 30 to calculate a counting rate, and stops the counting when the counting rate exceeds a predetermined threshold, and performs counting when the counting rate is less than the threshold.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A radiation monitor, comprising:
a light-emitting unit which generates light having an intensity depending on an amount of incident radiation;
an optical fiber which sends a photon generated by the light-emitting unit;
a photoelectric converter which converts the photon sent by the optical fiber into an electric signal;
a dose calculation device which calculates a dose from the electric signal converted by the photoelectric converter, detects a radiation timing and calculates a dose of the radiation on the basis of the detected timing; and
a display device which displays a measurement result calculated by the dose calculation device,
wherein an optical filter is disposed between the light-emitting unit and the optical fiber, and
wherein the optical filter blocks light having a wavelength equal to or less than a cutoff wavelength.

2. The radiation monitor according to claim 1 ,
wherein the dose calculation device counts an electric signal converted from each one of the photon by the photoelectric converter one by one to calculate a counting rate, and detects the radiation timing from the counting rate to control an addition timing of counts used in the calculation of the dose.

3. The radiation monitor according to claim 1 ,
wherein the dose calculation device receives an irradiation timing signal from a radiation device which irradiates the radiation, and detects the irradiation timing from the irradiation timing signal to control an addition timing of counts used in the calculation of the dose.

4. The radiation monitor according to claim 1 ,
wherein the light-emitting unit has a fluorescence lifetime of 430 nsec or more and 2.8 msec or less.

5. The radiation monitor according to claim 1 ,
wherein the light-emitting unit is a Nd-doped YAG crystal.

6. The radiation monitor according to claim 5 ,
wherein the cutoff wavelength of the optical filter is a value falling within a range of 808 nm or more and less than 1,064 nm.

7. A method of monitoring a radiation, comprising:
irradiating light having an intensity depending on an amount of an incident radiation;
sending a photon generated in the irradiating through an optical fiber;
converting the photon sent through the optical fiber into an electric signal; and
detecting a radiation timing and calculating a dose of the radiation on the basis of the detected timing from the electric signal converted in the converting,
wherein an optical filter is disposed between the light-emitting unit and the optical fiber, and
wherein the optical filter blocks light having a wavelength equal to or less than a cutoff wavelength.

8. The method of monitoring a radiation according to claim 7 ,
wherein the calculating counts an electric signal converted from each one of the photons in the converting one by one to calculate a counting rate, and detects a radiation timing from the counting rate to adjust an addition timing of counts used in the calculation of the dose.

9. The method of monitoring of the radiation according to claim 7 ,
wherein the calculating receives an irradiation timing signal from a radiation irradiation device which irradiates the radiation, and detects the irradiation timing from the irradiation timing signal to adjust an addition timing of counts used in the calculation of the dose.

Assignees

• Hitachi Ltd

Inventors

• Ueno Yuichiro
• Tadokoro Takahiro
• Nagumo Yasushi
• Hatakeyama Shuichi
• Ueno Katsunori
• Okada Kouichi

Classifications

• A61N5/1071 Primary

  for verifying the dose delivered by the treatment plan · CPC title

• A61N5/10

  X-ray therapy; Gamma-ray therapy; Particle-irradiation therapy (A61N5/01 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G01T1/20

  with scintillation detectors · CPC title

• A61N2005/109

  Neutrons · CPC title

• A61N5/1001

  using radiation sources introduced into or applied onto the body; brachytherapy · CPC title