​France

Vermon

VERMON SA incorporated in 1984 and was issued from the medical research group in Ultrasound for space applications of University of Tours (France). VERMON is continuously maintaining its commitment to research and technological development in the domains of ultrasonic apparatus and medical diagnosis and therapy and devotes yearly more than 20% of its revenue to R&D activities. As a result, the company owns numerous patented technologies relating to transducers and ultrasonic medical devices and is ranked as one of the most important medical ultrasonic device manufacturer around the world. Transducer technologies are VERMON’s core business and the company also develops proprietary technologies and customized solutions such as piezocomposite wherein flexibility and adaptability are superior to conventional devices or capacitive Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducers (cMUTs) using MEMS technologies for performance enhanced devices for therapy and imaging. Innovation is the company’s leitmotiv and VERMON is sustainably supporting collaborative research programmes to develop new technologies and processes in order to maintain its competitiveness at European level.

Key Staff

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With a background in Electronics & μMechanism (MSc), An Nguyen-Dinh joined VERMON in 1987 and has been holding the position of Director of Technology since 1997. He is in charge of advanced research activities, research cooperation, EU research programmes/projects and IP’s strategy & management. An Nguyen-Dinh is the author and co‐author of numberous international patents (>12) and scientific publications in the field of ultrasound, transducers, imaging, diagnostic and therapy techniques (>15). His domain of interest is focused on ultrasound transducer technologies and systems, MEMS‐based devices for ultrasonic applications, advanced piezoelectric materials and devices, acoustic propagation and energy harvesting.

Echo Control Medical

ECM is a French independent company designing, manufacturing and selling ultrasound imaging systems for medical and veterinary applications. Founded in May 2001 to address veterinarians and breeders need for a pregnancy control tool, ECM has developed a range of small portable battery‐operated low price ultrasound scanners. In 2005, ECM entered the medical market and developed a new line of high‐end systems, mainly focused on low-price portable systems. Today, ECM has 35 medical distributors and 60 veterinary distributors around the world, sells about 700 products per year for a total turnover of 5 M€.

The company is based in Angoulême, France, has 26 employees including 5 R&D engineers, with all activities on the same site (marketing & sales, administration, R&D, manufacturing, service). ECM selects the best available ultrasound probes on the OEM market, and has acquired a significant experience in integrating probes from several manufacturers, including Vermon with which ECM had business partnership for years.

Key Staff

Sixte de Fraguier is an R&D and Quality Manager at ECM. He has a background in engineering with a specialization in physics and extensive experience in manufacturing ultrasound probes for sonar and medical applications. Sixte joined ECM in 2006, where he led the development of the new ECM line of medical and veterinary products, established the company Quality system and obtained the ISO 13485 / CE marking company certifications.