A look inside a typical piece of medical-imaging equipment reveals myriad technologies from many engineering disciplines that must collaborate to form a system. For example, developing X-ray scintillators in CT (computerized- tomography) machines to convert X-rayparticle energy into photon energy requires materials-science research into rare-earth materials. Capturing this photon energy over wide dynamic ranges requires custom analog-frontend electronics, and acquiring the data from tens or even hundreds of thousands of such X-ray detectors requires customized storage subsystems and interface technologies. Complex software algorithms then form images from this substantial volume of raw data. Radiologists, sonographers, and other medical-imaging professionals examine these images to make their diagnoses. This vertically integrated, multidisciplinary engineering from materials-science research to custom silicon and complex software design has historically required hefty R&D budgets, which only large companies could afford.
The current economic environment has caused an increased focus on price and performance and forced medical-equipment OEMs to re-evaluate their R&D budgets to focus on technologies that are truly keys to their competitive advantage, outsourcing other nondifferentiated imaging functions to outside semiconductor and subsystem suppliers.
Read more via EDN.