February 3, 2023

BETA BEAMS experts have developed their own software to optimise the measurement of the radiation dose

Radiation dose mapping is an important tool in radiation sterilization. It provides essential insight into the effectiveness of electron beam accelerators. BETA BEAMS uses different methods to measure radiation doses. One of them consists in the use of radiochromic films. These are exposed to radiation and then scanned to obtain a greyscale image. These grayscales are converted in to a dose in kGy thanks to a scaled processing of the film.  This measurement method has the advantages of giving a dose mapping of the surfaces of complex shaped objects.

However, this can be a complex and repetitive process that increases the risk of error. To improve the efficiency and speed of this method, BETA BEAMS has developed an in-house software using Python. This software facilitates the calibration procedure of the radiochromic films and their reading. This improves the accuracy of the results.

Examples of results obtained using the BETA BEAMS developed software

  1. we can see a grayscale image of a radiochromic film, which has been irradiated and scanned to retrieve the required information.
  2. a calibration tab is provided to automate the calibration interpolation process.
  3. data processing is performed to output a dose image or a measurement curve.
  4. the software allows you to process the outputs and export the data in different formats for easy use and further analysis.
  5. an example of a post-treatment result is shown. The colours correspond to the surface dose in kGy. This visualisation allows an efficient analysis of the results obtained.