Simulation of irradiation exposure of electronic devices due to heavy ion therapy with Monte Carlo Code MCNP6

¹ University Stuttgart, Institute for Nuclear Energy and Energy Systems, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany
² University Stuttgart, KE Technology GmbH, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany
³ Graz University of Technology, Master Student, Austria

^a Nicole.guilliard@ike.uni-stuttgart.de

Published online: 25 September 2017

Abstract

During heavy ion irradiation therapy the patient has to be located exactly at the right position to make sure that the Bragg peak occurs in the tumour. The patient has to be moved in the range of millimetres to scan the ill tissue. For that reason a special table was developed which allows exact positioning. The electronic control can be located outside the surgery. But that has some disadvantage for the construction. To keep the system compact it would be much more comfortable to put the electronic control inside the surgery. As a lot of high energetic secondary particles are produced during the therapy causing a high dose in the room it is important to find positions with low dose rates. Therefore, investigations are needed where the electronic devices should be located to obtain a minimum of radiation, help to prevent the failure of sensitive devices. The dose rate was calculated for carbon ions with different initial energy and protons over the entire therapy room with Monte Carlo particle tracking using MCNP6. The types of secondary particles were identified and the dose rate for a thin silicon layer and an electronic mixture material was determined. In addition, the shielding effect of several selected material layers was calculated using MCNP6.