Nov 19 2015
Cambrios Technologies, the Sunnyvale, CA-based leader in silver nanowire technology, today announced its ClearOhm® silver nanowire-based flexible sensor made by Netherlands-based Claymount, are being used in a first-of-its-kind mammogram product from Amsterdam-based Sigmascreening.
Examination for breast cancer requires X-rays of flattened breast tissue. With the existing machines this process is very painful. Sigmascreening has designed a new compression plate, the Sensitive Sigma Paddle, which takes into account the size of the breast and stiffness of the breast tissue. The pressure exerted on the breast can be measured and allows technicians to stop once sufficient pressure has been applied in order to minimize pain while getting an accurate X-ray measurement.
The flexible and transparent conducting ClearOhm® silver nanowire films allows the manufacture of the X-ray friendly sensor film used in the Sensitive Sigma Paddle. The compression plate is made by Netherlands based Claymount to the specifications provided by Sigmascreening. The paddles have now received EU certification and can be retrofitted onto existing mammography systems.
"Sigmascreening has created a revolutionary medical sensor for mammography systems," said Ivo Aarninkhof, CEO at Sigmascreening. "Our partnership with Claymount and Cambrios has resulted in a product that has been subject to extensive scientific research and has already been put into practice at the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam and women have responded very positively. We are pleased to now have the opportunity to implement our innovation within the market and, in the interest of all women, hope this will take place as soon as possible. This design specifically required both visible light and X-ray transparency, ability to conform to different shapes and electrical conductivity, all of which are met by silver nanowires made by Cambrios."
"Cambrios Technologies is the leader in developing silver nanowire based transparent conductors with a well-established supply chain and manufacturing capability," said Gerben Heideman, Claymount Assemblies BV General Manager. "Being incorporated into a medical device, all material must undergo stringent testing and the silver nanowires from Cambrios allow our products to meet all functional and reliability requirements and our product has passed all certification tests now."
"The versatility of our technology provides us with many amazing ways that silver-nanowire transparent conductors can be applied," said Cambrios President & CEO John LeMoncheck. "The inherent properties of ClearOhm materials are opening new applications for unmet market needs. Helping to create a vastly improved mammography device is the first step in the use of our technology to improve medical devices and diagnostics."
About Silver Nanowire Technology:
Nano-structured materials are deposited using existing production equipment to achieve enhanced performance of display devices and components at lower manufacturing costs. ClearOhm®, Cambrios' initial product, is a directly patternable, wet-process transparent conductive film made from silver nanowires that is replacing legacy, sputtered indium tin oxide (ITO) in touchscreens. Forthcoming products will apply this technology in other functional films for displays and thin-film applications across a range of consumer electronics and industrial markets.
Supporting Resources
About Sigmascreening - http://www.Sigmascreening.com/ & http://Sigmascreening.nl/SiteFiles/Publications/Press%20release%20Sigmascreening_2015%2011%2006.pdf