Medical and Healthcare Technology

Medical devices and surgical systems require lightning-fast response times for patient monitoring and life-saving procedures. Drops, delays, or inaccuracies of process data can result in severe injury or critical failures.

acontis' Real-time Hypervisor technology facilitates the simultaneous operation of real-time and non-real-time operating systems, ensuring timely and precise data processing. For instance, a surgical robot can run a control application in Real-time Linux, managing drives, sensors, and I/O, alongside the graphical user interface (GUI) application running in Windows, all on the same hardware.

In some cases, medical systems, such as surgical robots and advanced imaging platforms, must control over 20 motion axes and coordinate with additional robotic subsystems. EtherCAT is uniquely capable of handling this level of complexity on a single network, making it the only viable solution for such highly synchronized, multi-axis control scenarios. Devices must operate flawlessly, often in critical and high-risk environments.

Medical devices must process vast amounts of data in real-time, from imaging systems capturing high-resolution scans to robotic surgical platforms responding to a surgeon’s precise movements. Any delay or data inconsistency can compromise diagnostic accuracy and procedural outcomes, making deterministic communication and synchronization essential for critical medical applications.

EtherCAT’s deterministic communication ensures precise, high-speed data exchange and process control, meeting the stringent motion control demands of healthcare technology. acontis’ EtherCAT Master stack, EC-Master, offers a Class A master with Distributed Clocks (DC), allowing for highly synchronized operation between the MainDevice and SubDevices. This functionality enables manufacturers to develop advanced, real-time applications with accurate and reliable performance, critical for medical equipment.

For applications that require independent validation or comprehensive documentation of system behavior, acontis offers EC-Monitor, a passive and independent EtherCAT analysis tool. EC-Monitor can function as a "Digital Shadow System," validating the performance of the main system in real-time while capturing all relevant data for quality assurance, traceability, and compliance. This supervisory capability is especially important for safety-critical applications in the medical field, where oversight and documentation are essential.

Furthermore, by leveraging Real-time Hypervisor solutions, manufacturers can consolidate multiple processing functions on a single system without compromising real-time performance. This reduces hardware complexity, improves efficiency, and ensures that medical devices maintain the ultra-fast response times necessary for life-critical applications.

The healthcare industry is heavily regulated, with stringent certification processes for medical devices. Compliance with standards such as FDA regulations, IEC 60601 for electrical medical devices, and ISO 13485 for medical device quality management is crucial for market approval.

acontis technologies can provide comprehensive documentation, unit test data, and even source code to support customers in their regulatory compliance process. Our EtherCAT and Real-time Hypervisor solutions are already implemented in many FDA-approved medical platforms, and we collaborate closely with customers to ensure their systems meet industry standards while optimizing performance and reliability.

Medical technology is evolving rapidly, requiring scalable and adaptable systems that can integrate new functionalities without requiring a complete redesign. Manufacturers need flexible solutions that allow for future expansion while maintaining seamless operation.
acontis' EtherCAT MainDevice stack, EC-Master, supports numerous operating systems and CPU architectures out-of-the-box, enabling easy scalability without impacting performance or development efforts. Our sophisticated configuration software and advanced feature packs such as Hot Connect, Cable Redundancy, and Split Frame Processing allow manufacturers the flexibility to customize and future-proof their EtherCAT applications. Medical technology is evolving rapidly, requiring scalable and adaptable systems that can integrate new functionalities without requiring a complete redesign.