Impact of beam alignment on leakage of the siemens 160 MLC™

Abstract

With its newest linear accelerator, the ARTISTE™, Siemens Healthcare also has introduced the 160 MLC™. Because of the specific design of the 160 MLC™ featuring tilted leaves, the exact position of the linac's focal spot plays an important role in the leakage performance of the MLC. Upon commissioning of a dual photon energy ARTISTE™, capable of generating 6 MV and 18 MV photon treatment beams, we have performed several measurements regarding leakage of the MLC for both energies. The measurements were repeated after adjustments to beam alignment and compared to the previous ones. © 2009 Springer-Verlag.