LHCB: A LHCb-VELO module as beam quality monitor for proton therapy beam at the Clatterbridge Centre for Oncology

The progress in detector technology, driven by the needs of particle tracking and vertexing in the present LHC and its upgrade (sLHC), has led to the design of silicon sensors with low mass, high granularity, high speed and unprecedented radiation hardness. The sensors designed for such a harsh environment can be profitably used for instrumenting the control systems of therapeutic hadron beams. The high granularity and readout clock speed are well suited for monitoring continuous beam currents. The low mass allows reduced interference with the beam whilst monitoring its profile with high precision. The high resolution and sensitivity to minimum ionising particles allows monitoring of the beam spot position by measurement of the halo in real time, without any interference with the beam spot used in therapy.