Varian Confidential CTB-ML-570-b.

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GENERAL INFORMATION

Before beginning the modification, read this entire document.

PERFORMANCE CHECK

Perform a thorough performance verification before disassembling and modifying any system. Make a
note of any operational discrepancies.

SAFETY PROCEDURES

Become familiar with Oncology Systems Customer Support Safety policies before working on Oncology
Systems Products. Ensure compliance with OSCS safety practices and procedures while performing
this modification. Refer to Product Users Manual for Safety instructions.

ATTENTION: This information is provided for use by qualified service technicians. Varian Medical Systems, Inc. makes no SHEET
representation to the qualifications of any service technicians other than its own employees. Improper or uninformed 864988
maintenance or repair of the Product may expose a maintenance technician, operator and/ or patient to safety hazards including
but not limited to one or more of the following: mechanical collision, electrical shock, and radiation. Any of these hazards could DWG NO.
ML-570 Rev B 2 of 10
cause serious injury and even death. Copyright © 2008, Varian Medical Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
CTB-ML-570-b.doc Customer Technical Bulletin

1. INTRODUCTION AND IMPACT

This document summarizes work that was performed in the summer of 2007 to quantify the
relationship in a Millennium MLC between the IR beam alignment values and any changes in
the leaf positions. The conclusions reached indicate that the 15 mV nominal value that is
measured between test points TP1 and TP2 on the MLC IR detector board should be set only
when the IR transmitter is replaced, and should not be adjusted back to 15 mV during PMI
events as has typically been done up until now.

Procedure changes based on this data are in the Millennium MLC PMI procedures, CTB-ML-
422, starting with Revision C; this document contains additional reference information only. The
procedure changes are summarized as:

1. Do not move the emitter or detector boards except during installation or when replacing
the emitter (or if other activities result in moving either the emitter or detector for any other
reason).

2. Use the detector value (TP2-TP3) alone to determine when to change the emitter.

3. Use Shaper to define leaf shadow plans that will eliminate reflections from the leaf faces.

1. Start with a new, open field.

2. For a 120-leaf MLC, move leaf A50 and leaf B50 to 19.38 cm.

3. For an 80-leaf MLC, move leaf A30 and leaf B30 to 19.38 cm.

4. For a 52-leaf MLC, move leaf A23 and leaf B23 to 19.38 cm.

Always use the service panel to move both carriages back to their retract limit
switches after using a plan that was created in Shaper to move the leaves to plan.

4. Always perform a full field alignment procedure whenever any IR beam component is
moved for any reason.

The remainder of this document contains technical information that led to this change in
procedures.

ATTENTION: This information is provided for use by qualified service technicians. Varian Medical Systems, Inc. makes no SHEET
representation to the qualifications of any service technicians other than its own employees. Improper or uninformed 864988
maintenance or repair of the Product may expose a maintenance technician, operator and/ or patient to safety hazards including
but not limited to one or more of the following: mechanical collision, electrical shock, and radiation. Any of these hazards could DWG NO.
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cause serious injury and even death. Copyright © 2008, Varian Medical Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
CTB-ML-570-b.doc Customer Technical Bulletin

2. MEASUREMENT TECHNIQUES

In both experiments that are described in Section 4 of

this document, the leaves are moved to create a 12-mm
gap. Leaf positions are determined by measuring the
gaps between leaves A1 and B1 and leaves A60 and
B60.

Prior to experimentation, it was important to find an

accurate and consistent method of measuring leaf end
locations. The selection of a measuring device was
essential in ensuring the precision of measurements.
The widely available feeler gauge was not selected due
to its lack of sensitivity in measuring small changes in
leaf distance. Instead, a precision sliding parallel bar
was placed in between the leaf faces (Figure 1),
adjusted until each side just touched the front of the
facing leaves, then measured with calipers. The gaps
between leaves A1 and leaf B1 and between leaves
Figure 1 Adjustable parallel in
A60 and B60 were both measured using this technique.
contact with leaves for gap
This method allows for 2 additional decimal places of measurements
precision over the feeler gauges. Measurements were
taken several times in order to generate statistical variance and assure consistency.

A second question was what technique to use to

measure the voltages. There is a good deal of
reflection off of the leaf face as the infrared beam
travels to the receiver. This affects the value of
the voltages, making their measurement less
reliable. If the carriage is unbolted and slid back
(Figure 2), this reflection is eliminated and the
voltage value measured on the receiver board is
an accurate and repeatable value. This was the
technique used when measuring and setting all
TP1-TP2 and TP2-TP3 values in the following
Figure 2 Measurements were done with work.
the carriage unbolted

ATTENTION: This information is provided for use by qualified service technicians. Varian Medical Systems, Inc. makes no SHEET
representation to the qualifications of any service technicians other than its own employees. Improper or uninformed 864988
maintenance or repair of the Product may expose a maintenance technician, operator and/ or patient to safety hazards including
but not limited to one or more of the following: mechanical collision, electrical shock, and radiation. Any of these hazards could DWG NO.
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cause serious injury and even death. Copyright © 2008, Varian Medical Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
CTB-ML-570-b.doc Customer Technical Bulletin

3. LEAF SHADOW PLANS

A technique that eliminates the need to unbolt the carriages was also investigated. By
extending leaf 50 of a 120-leaf MLC a short way into the path of the LED emitter, the leaf
prevents the reflection off of the face of the leaves. This results in stable measurements of TP1-
TP2 over a leaf extension range of about 2.5 mm to 5 mm (Figure 3). These voltages are
consistent with the values measured with an unbolted carriage.
20.0
18.0
16.0

TP1-TP2 Voltage (mV)

14.0
12.0
10.0
8.0
6.0
4.0
2.0
0.0
1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0
Leaf extension at the leaf plane (mm)

Figure 3 Effect of extending a leaf into the IR beam to eliminate the effects of reflections

The middle of the stable range is 3.6 mm into the path of the infrared beam (7.2 mm at
isocenter), so a plan that moves A50 and B50 to this position can be used during IR beam
alignment to increase precision. By plans that perform these moves, a technician does not need
to unbolt the carriage or to measure the leaf extension distance. However, after loading a leaf
shadow plan, the carriages must be manually moved to their retract limit switches using the
MLC service panel (position 61).

If you click the green “Go” button to re-load the plan after using the service panel to
retract the carriages, it will move the leaves only instead of moving the carriages back
out. To return to the intended configuration, click on the red “Retract” button before
returning to plan and manually retracting the carriages again.

ATTENTION: This information is provided for use by qualified service technicians. Varian Medical Systems, Inc. makes no SHEET
representation to the qualifications of any service technicians other than its own employees. Improper or uninformed 864988
maintenance or repair of the Product may expose a maintenance technician, operator and/ or patient to safety hazards including
but not limited to one or more of the following: mechanical collision, electrical shock, and radiation. Any of these hazards could DWG NO.
ML-570 Rev B 5 of 10
cause serious injury and even death. Copyright © 2008, Varian Medical Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
CTB-ML-570-b.doc Customer Technical Bulletin

4. DATA COLLECTION
Two series of measurements were performed with the goal of getting the most consistent and
accurate alignment. The first set examines the practice of moving the receiver board to adjust
the TP1-TP2 voltage, and measures its effect on leaf alignment. The second set simulates
aging of the transmitter and measures its effects on the TP1-TP2 voltage and on the leaf gap.

4.1. Moving the optical receiver board

In the first experiment, the effect of moving the optical receiver board was tested. Only
one carriage was tested at a time. The first step was to move the optical emitter board
to achieve between 100 and 200 mV on the TP2-TP3 voltage. The emitter was bolted
down and not moved after that. The receiver board was moved in incremental voltages
from the optimal 15 mV on TP1-TP2. The values were stepped by 5 mV from -25 mV to
55 mV (15 mV ± 40 mV). The technique involved unbolting the carriage to set the TP1-
TP2 voltage, bolting the carriage back, deleting the secondary files, and re-initializing the
MLC. The leaves were moved to 12 mm using the FieldAlign MLC plan. Finally, the
distance was measured between leaves A1:B1 and A60:B60 with the sliding parallel
tool. Each data point was measured 3 times to assure consistency, and the entire
experiment was repeated 3 times as well.

Graphical analysis of the results is shown in Figure 4. Moving both the A-side carriage
and the B-side carriage shows similar results: at the lower end voltages, the carriage is
skewed with the leaf 1 gap larger than the leaf 60 gap (Figure 5). At higher voltages the
opposite effect is noted with the leaf 60 gap being larger. The carriages also get closer
together at the higher voltages. Additionally, the translational movement is noted higher
on leaf gap A1:B1. This is due to the geometry of leaf 1 being closest to the detector.

12.5
12.4
12.3
Leaf Gap (mm)

12.2 Lower Higher

Voltages Voltages
12.1
12.0
11.9
11.8
11.7
-40 -20 0 20 40 60 Gap 1 > 60 Gap 1 < 60
TP1-TP2 Voltage (mV)
Gap at leaf 1 Gap at leaf 60

Figure 4 Leaf motion as a function of moving the Figure 5 Leaf bank motion with lower or
detector card higher detector voltages
The data from varying carriage-A or carriage-B shows that the carriage being varied
tracks the movement of the infrared beam receiver as it is moved with the board.
Additionally, there are flatter slopes on either side of the 15 mV value indicating that
there is some ± tolerance. Over the range 5 mV to 25 mV (15 ± 10 mV), leaf gap 1
varies 0.15 mm and leaf gap 60 varies 0.10 mm at the leaf plane (approximately 0.30
and 0.20 mm at isocenter), and could be doubled if both sides were out of alignment.
This variance is still well within the tolerance limits allowed.

ATTENTION: This information is provided for use by qualified service technicians. Varian Medical Systems, Inc. makes no SHEET
representation to the qualifications of any service technicians other than its own employees. Improper or uninformed 864988
maintenance or repair of the Product may expose a maintenance technician, operator and/ or patient to safety hazards including
but not limited to one or more of the following: mechanical collision, electrical shock, and radiation. Any of these hazards could DWG NO.
ML-570 Rev B 6 of 10
cause serious injury and even death. Copyright © 2008, Varian Medical Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
CTB-ML-570-b.doc Customer Technical Bulletin

5. SIMULATING EMITTER DECAY

The second experiment is to simulate LED emitter decay. The motivation behind this test is that
the voltage on TP1-TP2 could be less than the 15 mV nominal
because of a decaying emitter, not because of misalignment. To
simulate the LED emitter decay, the output was reduced by
replacing the 68Ω resistor in series with the LED with sequentially
higher value resistors.

This was achieved by soldering clips into the resistor’s location on

the circuit board and replacing the 68 ohm resistor. Resistances
used in the circuit were: 56Ω, 82Ω, 100Ω, 120Ω, 150Ω, 172Ω, 200Ω
and 240 Ω. The output was measured by tracking both TP1-TP2 and the TP2-TP3 voltages.
These values were measured with the carriage unbolted and slid back. The graph in Figure 6
shows the results. Both the emitter and receiver voltages decrease, indicating a weakening
signal as the resistance is increased.

200 20
180 18
160 16
TP2-TP3 Voltage (mV)

TP1-TP2 Voltage (mV)

140 14
120 12
TP2-TP3
100 10
TP1-TP2
80 8
60 6
40 4
20 2
0 0
50 100 150 200 250
Resistance (ohms)

Figure 6 Emitter and detector intensities as a function of resistor value

Next, the MLC alignment was tested against this weakening LED output. At each different
resistance value starting at 52Ω, the secondary files were deleted and the MLC was
reinitialized. Neither the emitter or receiver boards were moved from their initial positions. The
leaves were then moved to the 12 mm plan as in the previous experiment. The location of the
leaves was measured similarly using the gap between leaf A1:B1 and A60:B60, and the results
are shown in Figure 7.

ATTENTION: This information is provided for use by qualified service technicians. Varian Medical Systems, Inc. makes no SHEET
representation to the qualifications of any service technicians other than its own employees. Improper or uninformed 864988
maintenance or repair of the Product may expose a maintenance technician, operator and/ or patient to safety hazards including
but not limited to one or more of the following: mechanical collision, electrical shock, and radiation. Any of these hazards could DWG NO.
ML-570 Rev B 7 of 10
cause serious injury and even death. Copyright © 2008, Varian Medical Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
CTB-ML-570-b.doc Customer Technical Bulletin

12.5
12.4

Gap Between Leaves (mm)

12.3
12.2
12.1
Gap at leaf 1
12.0
Gap at leaf 60
11.9
11.8
11.7
11.6
11.5
50.0 100.0 150.0 200.0 250.0
Resistance (ohms)

Figure 7 Leaf gap as a function of emitter intensity; simulated by changing resistance in the emitter
circuit.

From the data, it’s apparent that neither of the decreasing voltages have any measurable effect
on the leaf end positions over the data range. This shows that decreasing emitter output has
no effect on leaf position as long as the MLC is initially aligned to specifications with a
new LED emitter. This finding is the driving force behind making changes in the MLC PMI
procedures.

6. CUSTOMER SITE CONFIRMATION

To confirm the conclusions from Experiment 2, additional data was collected at a customer site.
A new emitter was installed and the optical system was aligned on August 15, 2007. Each
month, the optical values were checked using the shadow plan technique and the gap at leaf 1
was measured. The results below show the anticipated decline in both TP2-TP3 and TP2-TP1
values, and show that the gap change is negligible over 2.5 months. This confirms that the
simulated decay measurements accurately predicted what would occur in real life.
Emitter Voltage (TP2-TP3) Detector Voltage (TP1-T12)
and gap
200 A Side
A Side
190 B Side 18
180
B Side
170
16 Gap A1:B1
mV or mm

160

150
14
140

130 12
120

110 10
100 8/6/2007 9/25/2007 11/14/2007 1/3/2008
8/ 6/ 2007 8/ 26/ 2007 9/ 15/ 2007 10/ 5/ 2007 10/ 25/ 200 11/ 14/ 200 12/ 4/ 2007 12/ 24/ 200
7 7 7
Date
Date

ATTENTION: This information is provided for use by qualified service technicians. Varian Medical Systems, Inc. makes no SHEET
representation to the qualifications of any service technicians other than its own employees. Improper or uninformed 864988
maintenance or repair of the Product may expose a maintenance technician, operator and/ or patient to safety hazards including
but not limited to one or more of the following: mechanical collision, electrical shock, and radiation. Any of these hazards could DWG NO.
ML-570 Rev B 8 of 10
cause serious injury and even death. Copyright © 2008, Varian Medical Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
CTB-ML-570-b.doc Customer Technical Bulletin

7. CONCLUSION
The data from both experiments suggest that moving the receiver board to achieve a 15 mV
setting on TP1-TP2 is unnecessary except upon initial IR beam setup. Since the emitter decay
does not affect the position of the leaf fronts, adjusting the value to 15 mV does not improve leaf
alignment.

IR beam setup and adjustment procedures have been changed in the PMI document to reflect
this data, and will be changed in other documentation in future revisions.

8. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The work described in this document was performed by Summer Fellow Peat Sutherland during
summer, 2007.

ATTENTION: This information is provided for use by qualified service technicians. Varian Medical Systems, Inc. makes no SHEET
representation to the qualifications of any service technicians other than its own employees. Improper or uninformed 864988
maintenance or repair of the Product may expose a maintenance technician, operator and/ or patient to safety hazards including
but not limited to one or more of the following: mechanical collision, electrical shock, and radiation. Any of these hazards could DWG NO.
ML-570 Rev B 9 of 10
cause serious injury and even death. Copyright © 2008, Varian Medical Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
CTB-ML-570-b.doc Customer Technical Bulletin

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January-2006

ATTENTION: This information is provided for use by qualified service technicians. Varian Medical Systems, Inc. makes no SHEET
representation to the qualifications of any service technicians other than its own employees. Improper or uninformed 864988
maintenance or repair of the Product may expose a maintenance technician, operator and/ or patient to safety hazards including
but not limited to one or more of the following: mechanical collision, electrical shock, and radiation. Any of these hazards could DWG NO.
ML-570 Rev B 10 of 10
cause serious injury and even death. Copyright © 2008, Varian Medical Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.