ABOUT US
AUROTECH ultrasound AS develops digital signal-processing ultrasound systems and offers high-end digital ultrasound platforms to OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) or license partners. The platform offered, MANUS – Miniaturized Application-Neutral Ultrasound System, has the same high-speed data collection and image processing capabilities as high-end scanners due to its special use of FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array) technology. The MANUS platform is unique, and combines flexibility, image quality and size with low manufacturing costs. We consider the platform to be the most complete and flexible OEM ultrasound engine available and focuses on further improvments and adaption of new customers to MANUS. Thus, our vision is to become the no. 1 technology partner for high quality ultrasound engines.
Our company has a highly skilled staff of engineers totally dedicated to developing the best possible ultrasound system for potential OEM partners. Our senior engineers have more than 20 years experience from developing and industrializing advanced electronics, and for the last 10 years their primary focus has been on our MANUS platform. MANUS is a product platform, or a “Lego” system, that easily and intuitively adapts to a range of clinical ultrasound applications.
By selling the platform and not the end product, AUROTECH can focus on the signal processing, and the feedback is that we are among the best in the global market (tested by customers and independent researchers, reports on inquiry). This way, our customers can focus on building end products and marketing these. We believe this is the best solution; yielding the best products and the shortest time to market for many potential products.
Our customers are typically medtech companies whose primary product is not ultrasound, but where ultrasound technology creates a new product or expands on the already existing product line. Other customers can be ultrasound companies who need our platform to speed up time to market or enter new segments. A good medtech example is our customer Medi-Stim ASA (Norwegian medtech company listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange with ticker: MEDI), who has delivered equipment for quality assurance in by-pass operations for years, and who have updated their system with ultrasound to create a new and better product: VeriQC (for more information on Medi-Stim ASA and VeriQC, please see: www.medistim.com).
In 2009, after finishing the first version of the platform, the company decided to speed up its marketing activities and development capacity. The target for the next 5 years is to sell MANUS to more than three new customers each year within the medtech industry, and establish a long term contract with one of the larger ultrasound companies. The company expects to grow rapidly during the coming years, and the target is to become 20-25 engineers within 2-3 years.
The company’s business model for new customers typically has 3 stages:
Stage 1: Feasibility study (1-2 months)
Stage 2: Application adaption (3-6 months)
Stage 3: Distribution of OEM “black box” or licensed production
AUROTECH is an ultrasound development company and focuses on further improvements and adaption of new customers to MANUS. All production is thus outsourced to long-term partners under careful supervision by AUROTECH’s production manager.
AUROTECH ultrasound AS is part of the advanced medical ultrasound industry cluster in Trondheim, Norway. Several key institutions are located here, among them the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) with more than 25,000 students, SINTEF (Scandinavia’s largest R&D institution), with over 2,000 employees and St. Olav University Hospital, with 8,000 employees. These three large institutions and the Norwegian ultrasound industry have also established a new center for research-based innovation funded by the Research Council of Norway called Medical Imaging Lab (MI Lab, www.ntnu.no/milab ). In 2006, fourteen centers for research-based innovation were established to enhance the innovative capabilities of Norwegian industry by focusing on long-term research in close alliances with research-intensive enterprises and prominent research groups at Norwegian universities. MI Lab is one of three in the area of medicine and has an annual budget of approximately USD 7 million for the 8-year period between 2007 and 2014. AUROTECH ultrasound AS joined MI Lab in June 2010, and will continue to cooperate with the medical ultrasound cluster in Trondheim, which the company considers very important for its development.