Siemens Healthineers has officially opened a semiconductor fabrication facility in Forchheim, Germany, to develop and manufacture cadmium telluride (CdTe)-based sensors for photon-counting CT scanners.
The company invested approximately €100 million in construction and technical equipment for the roughly 9,500-square-meter Photon-counting Sensor Fab, which will create more than 100 new jobs, according to the company. The facility processes cadmium and tellurium at industrial scale to grow the crystals used in the sensors, a process that takes about 10 weeks per crystal before it is cut, polished, and lithographically patterned, Siemens Healthineers said.
The new plant supplements the company's existing sensor production site in Japan, which is nearing capacity limits amid growing demand for photon-counting CT scanners, according to the firm. Construction began in 2023 and has now been completed.
