Nanox begins producing digital X-ray chips in Korea

An Israeli medical imaging technology company said it began producing digital X-ray chips at its semiconductor plant in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, on Tuesday.

The Nasdaq-listed Nanox said its Yongin facility will be the main production site of its microelectromechanical systems, or MEMs, called Nanox.Source chips, a key component of the company’s Nanox.ARC, a 3D medical imaging system that has the potential to bring X-ray technology to two-thirds of the world without meaningful access.

Nanox expects to get to scale for production by mid-2022.

“Amidst a global supply chain crisis, the new facility enables Nanox to produce our own supply of semiconductor chips that are integral to the Nanox.ARC,” said Erez Meltzer, chief executive of Nanox.

“Our new fabrication plant is an important part of our strategy of vertical integration to ensure we can deliver a global, connected medical imaging solution with the potential to meaningfully expand delivery of health care.”

Strategically located next to the world’s largest semiconductor cluster in Yongin, the Nanox facility spans 12,000 square meters, including a 1,200-square-meter MEMs clean room.

The company’s core proprietary technology is transformation from an analog X-ray source to a digital X-ray source, which it expects will cut costs of the Nanox.ARC system compared to traditional 3D imaging systems that use a legacy analog X-ray source.

By Kim So-hyun (sophie@heraldcorp.com)