Multichannel Sensor Array Design for Minimizing Detector Complexity and Power Consumption in Ionoacoustic Proton Beam Tomography

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The authors propose a paper on detecton scaling in ion-acoustic applications.

Although it is a very interesting topic, I ask the authors to consider the following points.

1) Revise the entire article to correct printing and syntax errors,

2) Extend the introduction by arguing the rationale more extensively,

3) Lines 35/36: Are there any Refs to refer to in order to justify what is asserted?

4) As the previous printout but for lines 84/85

5) The term g33 appears in equation (2) but is not defined in the text

6) The term nT appears in equation (5) but is not defined in the text

7) The authors assume that the noise is uncorrelated with that of the other sensors. How do they make this assumption? 

8) The term theta appears in equation (7) but is not defined in the text.  I also recommend adding it in figure 1 to help the reader. 

10) There are more than 30% self-citations: please extend the literature search by comparing this paper with other studies in the literature. 

11) Throughout the paper, there are no electronic circuits or justifications for which this paper should be lowpower. I therefore wonder why the journal JLPEA was chosen. I recommend evaluating other journals more relevant to the subject matter. 

 

 

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Minor

Author Response

Thank you for your indications, which have been used to improve the manuscript. Changes have been highlighted in yellow for your convenience.

1) Revise the entire article to correct printing and syntax errors,

--> The article have been revised and double-checked for typos 

 

2) Extend the introduction by arguing the rationale more extensively,

--> The intruduction have been expanded to highlight the importance of proper sensor design to minimize system requirements with a focus on power minimization and optimization of the whole system, as pointed out in 11)

 

3) Lines 35/36: Are there any Refs to refer to in order to justify what is asserted?

4) As the previous printout but for lines 84/85

--> Proper references have been added

 

5) The term g33 appears in equation (2) but is not defined in the text

6) The term nT appears in equation (5) but is not defined in the text

--> Fixed

 

7) The authors assume that the noise is uncorrelated with that of the other sensors. How do they make this assumption? 

--> Sensors are distinct objects, physically separate and isolated. It is therefore reasonable to assume their noise is uncorrelated, since there are no relevant coupling mechanisms in properly designed sensors.

 

 

8) The term theta appears in equation (7) but is not defined in the text.  I also recommend adding it in figure 1 to help the reader. 

--> Theta has been defined in the text

10) There are more than 30% self-citations: please extend the literature search by comparing this paper with other studies in the literature. 

--> The reference section has been improved and expanded.  

11) Throughout the paper, there are no electronic circuits or justifications for which this paper should be lowpower. I therefore wonder why the journal JLPEA was chosen. I recommend evaluating other journals more relevant to the subject matter. 

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

In this paper, the authors investigated the design challenges of multichannel sensors for ion-acoustic tomography in terms of their ability to accurately reconstruct the dose deposition of a 200 MeV clinical proton beam,  highlighting the impact of the number of channels in the array and their directivity. The authors developed a complete acoustic model of the sensors and environment and used it to find an optimum tradeoff between accuracy. 

The paper is well-written, and the topic is very interesting.

The only suggestion to the authors is to include a comparison table to compare the important parameters with the state-of-the-art works. 

Author Response

Thank you for your suggestion. Unfortunately in state of the art there is lack of dedicated multichannel sensors for ionoacoustic experiments, therefore a comparison table is currently not possible.

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Dear Authors,

considering the changes made as a result of my reports, in my opinion the article can be now published.