First tests of the NOVO Compact Detector Array at a Proton Facility (OncoRay)

This data set contains the experimental raw data of the NOVO compact detector array (NOVCoDA) from the measurement campaign at OncoRay Dresden, Germany in December 2025. This experiment is the first test of the NOVCoDA prototype at a clinical proton beam. The aim of the measurement campaign was to characterize the response behavior of the scintillators used under high-energy neutron irradiation (especially the pulse-shape discrimination behavior), as well as to test the imaging, range-shift, and rate-processing capabilities of the system.

<strong>Setup:</strong>

Measurements 01.12.-09.12.:  miniNOVO (version 5): The prototype consists of 12 organic scintillator elements (6 × M600 and 6 × organic glas scintillator) of the dimensions 12×12×140 mm³

Measurements 10.12.-12.12.:  miniNOVO (version 5.1): The prototype consists of 14 organic scintillator elements (7 × M600 and 7 × organic glas scintillator) of the dimensions 12×12×140 mm³

The scintillator bars have dual readout composed of

2 × Hamamatsu R7378A (1’’) PMTs¹,
4 × Hamamatsu S14161-3050HS-04 SiPM¹ + U301² (+ custom front-end electronics) (only 2 × for miniNOVO version 5) and
8 × Hamamatsu R2059-01 (2’’) PMTs¹.

The data was recorded with 2 CAEN V1730S³ 14-bit, 16-channel digitizers (named dta and dtb) with a sampling frequency of 425.216 MS/s.

The detector array was placed at 90° w.r.t. to the fixed-beam research beam line of the Dresden proton therapy facility at OncoRay, Dresden. A cylindrical PMMA (solid/with air gap/with bone insert) was placed centrally in front of the detector head and irradiated with proton energies from 75-225 MeV and varying currents between 10-2000 pA at various positions (± 180 mm w.r.t. central position).

In addition measurements with the online-adaptive RAPTOR phantom in different configurations (air insert/bone insert/swelling/no swelling) were executed.

<strong>Data structure:</strong>

The directory <strong>DOI_calibration </strong>contains the position calibration measurements with a Sr-90 source. <strong>Energy_calibration </strong>holds the energy calibration measurements with a Na-22 and Cs-137 source. In <strong>efficiency_measurement </strong>the measurements with a Na-22 source at phantom position (with and without PMMA phantom) can be found. <strong>PMMA_phantom </strong>is dedicated to all the beam measurements with the cylindrical phantom (with and without various inserts) while the directory <strong>online_adaptive_phantom </strong>provides the same for the measurements with the RAPTOR phantom. All measurements for which waveforms were recorded are stored in <strong>waveforms </strong>and <strong>backend_comparison </strong>is comprised of repeat measurements with the cylindrical PMMA phantom where one detector (dtb, ch2 and ch3) was connected to an alternative back-end system for comparison. All other measurements and test runs are in the <strong>tests</strong> folder.

The PDF-files <strong>2025-12_ NOVO-first-proton-facility-tests-PGTV-Wiki.pdf</strong> and <strong>2025-12_ NOVO-first-proton-facility-tests-Week-2-PGTV-Wiki.pdf</strong> hold information about the setup of the experiment and and more details about the individual measurements (elog). The file <strong>2025-12_ NOVO-first-proton-facility-tests-Run-List-PGTV-Wiki.pdf </strong>contains the run list with all parameters for each measurement.

In<strong> 2025-12_OncoRay_HEBC_Monitor_Data.zip </strong>csv-files with the beam control meta data can be found (one file for each measurement day).

The main configuration file for the digitizers is called <strong>template_main.cfg</strong>.

<strong>Data Format:</strong>

All data is saved in root files which each contain two root trees, one for each digitizer, named “dta” and “dtb”. The trees hold the following information in the form of listmode data for each event: digitizer channel ("channel"), charge integrated over long gate ("Elong"), charge integrated over short gate ("Eshort"), digitizer flags ("flags") and the timestamp (separated in three parts: "timestamp", "timestampExtended", "time"). Additionally, the root files also contain an TArrayD which denotes the start time of the measurement in UNIX time at its first index and the stop time at its second.

There are two configuration files for each data file (named “filename_dtx.config”), one for each digitizer card. These text files contain the information about the digitizer settings for each run.

[1] Hamamatsu Photonics Deutschland GmbH, Arzbergerstr. 10, 82211 Herrsching am Ammersee, Germany.

[2] Target Systemelektronik, Heinz-Fangman-Straße 4, 42287 Wuppertal, Germany. 

[3] CAEN S.p.A., Via Vetraia 11, 55049 Viareggio (LU), Italy.