Thermal drift reduction with multiple bias current for MOSFET dosimeters

Phys Med Biol. 2011 Jun 21;56(12):3535-50. doi: 10.1088/0031-9155/56/12/006. Epub 2011 May 23.

Abstract

New thermal compensation methods suitable for p-channel MOSFET (pMOS) dosimeters with the usual dose readout procedure based on a constant drain current are presented. Measuring the source-drain voltage shifts for two or three different drain currents and knowing the value of the zero-temperature coefficient drain current, I(ZTC), the thermal drift of source-drain or threshold voltages can be significantly reduced. Analytical expressions for the thermal compensation have been theoretically deduced on the basis of a linear dependence on temperature of the parameters involved. The proposed thermal modelling has been experimentally proven. These methods have been applied to a group of ten commercial pMOS transistors (3N163). The thermal coefficients of the source-drain voltage and the threshold voltage were reduced from -3.0 mV °C(-1), in the worst case, down to -70 µV °C(-1). This means a thermal drift of -2.4 mGy °C(-1) for the dosimeter. When analysing the thermal drifts of all the studied transistors, in the temperature range from 19 to 36 °C, uncertainty was obtained in the threshold voltage due to a thermal drift of ±9 mGy (2 SD), a commonly acceptable value in most radiotherapy treatments. The procedures described herein provide thermal drift reduction comparable to that of other technological or numerical strategies, but can be used in a very simple and low-cost dosimetry sensor.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Artifacts
  • Electric Conductivity*
  • Metals / chemistry*
  • Oxides / chemistry*
  • Radiometry / instrumentation*
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Temperature*
  • Transistors, Electronic*

Substances

  • Metals
  • Oxides