A dosimetric characterization of a novel linear accelerator collimator

Purpose: The aim of this work is to characterize a new linear accelerator collimator which contains a single pair of sculpted diaphragms mounted orthogonally to a 160 leaf multileaf collimator (MLC). The diaphragms have thick regions providing full attenuation and thin regions where attenuation is provided by both the leaves and the diaphragm. The leaves are mounted on a dynamic leaf guide allowing rapid leaf motion and leaf travel over 350 mm. Methods: Dosimetric characterization, including assessment of leaf transmission, leaf tip transmission, penumbral width, was performed in a plotting tank. Head scatter factor was measured using a mini-phantom and the effect of leaf guide position on output was assessed using a water phantom. The tongue and groove effect was assessed using multiple exposures on radiochromic film. Leaf reproducibility was assessed from portal images of multiple abutting fields. Results: The maximum transmission through the multileaf collimator is 0.44% at 6MV and 0.52% at 10 MV. This reduced to 0.22% and 0.27%, respectively, when the beam passes through the dynamic leaf guide in addition to the MLC. The maximum transmission through the thick part of the diaphragm is 0.32% and 0.36% at 6 and 10MV. The combination of leaf and diaphragm transmission ranges from 0.08% to 0.010% at 6 MV and 0.10% to 0.14% depending on whether the shielding is through the thick or thin part of the diaphragm. The off-axis intertip transmission for a zero leaf gap is 2.2% at 6 and 10 MV. The leaf tip penumbra for a 100 x 100 mm field ranges from 5.4 to 4.3 mm at 6 and 10 MV across the full range of leaf motion when measured in the AB direction, which reduces to 4.0-3.4 mm at 6 MV and 4.5-3.8 mm at 10 MV when measured in the GT direction. For a 50 x 50mm field, the diaphragm penumbra ranges from 4.3 to 3.7 mm at 6 MV and 4.5 to 4.1 mm at 10 MV in the AB direction and 3.7 to 3.2 mm at 6 MV and 4.2 to 3.7 mm when measured in the GT direction. The tongue and groove effect observed from exposure of a radiochromic film to two abutting fields is an underdose of 25%. The head scatter factor at both 6 and 10 MV is similar to that from the MLCi2 collimator to within 0.8%. The uncertainty in the leaf position reproducibility is 0.05 mm (2 sigma). Conclusions: The Agility collimator is a low leakage, high definition collimator where both the MLC and the sculpted diaphragm have been optimized for dynamic treatments. (C) 2014 American Association of Physicists in Medicine.