Nijmegen-based NXP produces innovative large chips for X-ray equipment. This allows the devices to produce razor-sharp images, requiring less radiation. Jeroen Lotgering, senior vice president at NXP, explains how the worlds of Health and Hightech meet with this technology.
With less radiation yet sharper X-rays. This is possible with a special, large CMOS sensor. Devices with these sensors are increasingly found in the treatment rooms of dentists and hospitals. We all know the dental X-ray where you get a plate in your mouth and the dentist leaves the room at the moment of taking the picture, because otherwise he or she gets too much radiation.
"With innovative technology, this is no longer necessary. X-rays are made with better resolution and higher speed, while significantly less radiation is needed," Lotgering says. By using these chips, the radiation required is so low that video images can be taken constantly during operations." The demand for this specific X-ray equipment is currently taking off. The equipment is used by dentists and doctors, among others, for mammograms.
Jeroen Lotgering was a member of The Economic Board until 1 April 2022.
Health & High Tech
NXP makes chips made for these devices. The basis for the technology is a CMOS sensor (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor). CMOS has been around for over 20 years and is used for cameras in mobile phones, among other things. However, its use in the medical world has taken much longer. For X-ray applications, it has the advantage that the image sensor and the circuits that process the signal can be integrated into the same chip. With many other techniques, you need a separate chip for signal processing. The largest detectors require six chips, and therefore six wafers.
From an eight-inch wafer, you can normally make hundreds to as many as 80,000 chips. But for this X-ray device, only one chip is extracted from a wafer. "For some products, the trend is for everything to get smaller and smaller, but so that does not apply to all chips," Lotgering says. "Here, on the contrary, we need a large surface area. You can imagine that this is a very fragile product, where it is even more important that no dust or other contamination gets on the wafer. Because then you can throw away a whole slice."
NXP in Nijmegen
NXP's Nijmegen factory, ICN8, produces some 15 billion chips every year. This makes it NXP's largest factory worldwide. The semiconductor manufacturer focuses on the automotive industry, among others. Dee chips end up, for example, in safety systems (such as airbags and sensors), infotainment and car-to-car communication. NXP also focuses on other industries, so medical devices.
Lotgering had already been director of the Nijmegen plant for several years and has been responsible for NXP's six factories worldwide since early 2022. Due to the large chip shortages, the semiconductor manufacturer is keen to deliver as much and as reliably as possible to customers. For now, the war in Ukraine is not affecting semiconductor production. "We are not dependent on Ukraine or Russia for the supply of raw materials. At the same time, it is also not yet entirely clear how everything interacts. For example, certain car manufacturers who buy chips from NXP cannot continue their production now because they have to wait for other raw materials and components."
NXP wants to continue expanding production. For instance, the factory in Nijmegen was recently rebuilt at a cost of millions to be able to produce more chips. Lotgering: "Then these also have to go around the world. You are dependent on transport and there too, it remains to be seen how this will develop in the coming period. Supply and transport remain key areas of focus."
Newsroom Health & High Tech
This is an adaptation of an article from the Newsroom Health & Hightech. This newsroom produces beautiful, special and inspiring stories about Health & Hightech in Lifeport. These stories can be found through various partners of the Newsroom, including The Economic Board.
This article also appeared on Innovation Origins.
