Measurement uncertainty analysis of radiophotoluminescent glass dosimeter reader system based on GD-352M for estimation of protection quantity

At the Korea Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences, physical human phantoms were developed to evaluate various radiation protection quantities, based on the mesh-type reference computational phantoms of the International Commission on Radiological Protection. The physical human phantoms were fabricated such that a radiophotoluminescent glass dosimeter (RPLGD) with a Tin filter, namely GD-352M, could be inserted into them. A Tin filter is used to eliminate the overestimated signals in low-energy photons below 100 keV. The measurement uncertainty of the RPLGD reader system based on GD-352M should be analyzed for obtaining reliable protection quantities before using it for practical applications. Generally, the measurement uncertainty of RPLGD systems without Tin filters is analyzed for quality assurance of radiotherapy units using a high-energy photon beam. However, in this study, the measurement uncertainty of GD-352M was analyzed for evaluating the protection quantities. The measurement uncertainty factors in the RPLGD include the reference irradiation, regression curve, reproducibility, uniformity, energy dependence, and angular dependence, as described by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). These factors were calculated using the Guide to the Expression of Uncertainty in Measurement method, applying ISO/ASTM standards 51261(2013), 51707(2015), and SS-ISO 22127(2019). The measurement uncertainties of the RPLGD reader system with a coverage factor of k = 2 were calculated to be 9.26% from 0.005 to 1 Gy and 8.16% from 1 to 10 Gy. A blind test was conducted to validate the RPLGD reader system, which demonstrated that the readout doses included blind doses of 0.1, 1, 2, and 5 Gy. Overall, the E_n values were considered satisfactory.