U.S. Philips Corporation

Brian Sydney Driver

Francis J Span

Geoffrey Maximilian Claridge

Timothy Robert Jarvis

A collimator is described for a shielded effective point source of penetrating radiation, e.g. a radiotherapy machine which includes, after a primary collimator 16, a succession of a multileaf collimator 17, and a first and a second pair of independently adjustable block diaphragm leaves 30, 31, and 35, 36 at right angles to each other. By using rectilinear displacement of the multileaf collimator leaves 18 and the block diaphragm leaves 30, 31, a compact arrangement can be provided which fits into a standard RT collimator head. By curving the inner edges of the leaves to be tangential to the boundary ray an optimally reduced penumbra can be achieved. The block diaphragms enable the radiation leakage found in prior multileaf collimators to be minimized for small and off center irradiation patterns.

Multileaf collimator

An electron collimator is formed by two pairs of multi-leaved corner plates which are capable of simultaneous movement to alter the dimension of the collimator in two dimensions. In a preferred embodiment each corner shaped plate has two leaves which interleave with the leaves of an adjoining corner plate.

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Sussex, United Kingdom

Brian Sydney Driver