OIS reveals identity of detector customer

OIS reveals identity of detector customer

The mystery has been solved. Optical Imaging Systems, which announced in April that a major medical imaging vendor had placed an order for 300 flat-panel digital detectors, revealed this month that the purchaser was Sterling Diagnostic Imaging.

OIS, which has been working with Sterling since August 1996, is providing the Greenville, SC-based company with thin-film transistor sensor panels for use with Sterling's Direct Radiography detectors, which are targeted for a 1998 commercial release. Designed specifically for use in DR, the OIS sensor panels provide the basic readout structure for Sterling's x-ray detector array. Sterling then coats the sensor panels with an x-ray-absorbing semiconductor material, according to OIS of Northville, MI.

Although the plates designed specifically for Sterling will not be sold to any other vendor, the basic sensor panel technology is available to others. The technology has apparently attracted interest from several medical imaging vendors, according to Charles Wilson, executive vice president and CFO.

"We have probably been visited by just about anybody you can think of in the business, and have provided prototypes to a number of those companies," Wilson said. "We hope this will be a high growth area in the future for OIS."