Medical Imaging Semiconductor Market

Semiconductor devices in medical imaging technologies are on the rise and will probably continue to do so until 2008, and semiconductor vendors look forward to opportunities for growth, especially in high-end imaging systems including ultrasound and computed tomography (CT) scanners.

A new assessment from Frost & Sullivan (Palo Alto, CA, USA), an international growth consultancy company, revealed that total semiconductor sales in the global medical imaging market generated revenues of U.S.$1,094.5 million in 2003 and forecast that that this will reach $1,954.9 million in 2008 at an estimated compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.3%. "However, semiconductor vendors face a strong challenge in understanding the unique needs of the medical imaging modalities market, and addressing those requirements with the appropriate technology,” observed Swaminathan Srinivasan, a Frost & Sullivan research analyst.

This will probably be a hard task because of the dynamic nature of the medical imaging techniques market and the fact that the semiconductor market itself is going through some changes, from a technologic point of view. Medical imaging vendors, for instance, are increasingly insisting on higher speed and better quality imaging. To answer this need, semiconductor vendors might have to combine one or more methods, working in collaboration with other vendors. This would provide the best possible technology for the vendors' medical clients, and therefore, is apt to play a decisive role in the success of semiconductor vendors.

"Original equipment manufacturers of medical imaging modalities are under growing pressure to produce systems with higher image precision and speed. This is compelling semiconductor vendors to design processors and systems that consume relatively less power and produce high-quality images,” remarked Aditya Prasad, another Frost & Sullivan research analyst.

Medical imaging quality is a crucial factor, especially for high-end imaging instruments such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and ultrasound systems. Because customers consider these systems a long-term investment, it is critical for semiconductor vendors to develop upgrades on a regular basis and cut down on the time-to-market.

Because frequent upgrades call for a flexible architecture, the field programmable gate array (FPGA) will probably dominate over other technologies. FPGA is predicted to be one of the fastest growing segments, and has already begun replacing other well-established technologies in some major modalities, despite being comparatively new.

"FPGAs are reprogrammable, flexible, and reusable since any upgrade involves merely a change of software. This gives it a major advantage over, for instance, application-specific integrated circuits [ASICs] since ASIC vendors find it difficult to meet frequent upgrade demands from medical imaging modality vendors,” said Mr. Srinivasan.




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