Cover story
Dr. Markus Jungmann is Director of Sales for Medical and Embedded at duagon
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Embedded hardware for medical devices by duagon
t fi rst glance, railways seem to have nothing in common with medical technology. When people think of railways, they usually associate them with speed and scale, but also with harsh
environmental conditions involving a lot of dust, rain, or heat. When it comes to medical technology, however, people tend to think of bright, clean and sterile environments, precision and reliability. So why do so many manufacturers of medical and laboratory equipment still rely on the expertise and embedded hardware of one of the leading technology companies in railway engineering? There are several good reasons for this:
Extensive experience with embedded hardware in a regulated environment “That’s usually the fi rst question I get,” laughs Dr Markus Jungmann, Director of Sales for Medical and Embedded at duagon. Whenever he meets with OEMs and manufacturers of medical and laboratory equipment who aren’t yet familiar with duagon – or only know duagon from the rail industry – he’s been asked: “How do the rail industry and medical technology fi t together?” My answer is always: “Perfectly! That’s why we’ve been reliably supplying major medical device manufacturers with embedded hardware for 20 years.” duagon was founded over 30 years ago, with headquarters
in Switzerland. Since January 2026, the company has been part of Knorr-Bremse based in Munich, Germany. Its origins and primary revenue lie in the rail sector, where duagon ranks among the world’s leading technology companies. What began with interface cards for expanding embedded hardware has grown into a broad portfolio of hardware for train communication and computing, along with accompanying software and engineering services. duagon offers computing hardware for every railway application – both on board and along the tracks: comfort systems, functionally safe systems, complete systems, subsystems and components. All products meet the strict regulatory requirements of railway technology and are specifi cally designed for the particularly harsh environmental conditions, to withstand vibrations, shocks, dust, moisture and extreme temperatures. In addition, they feature cybersecurity functions such as secure boot and secure updates to achieve defi ned security levels.
06 April 2026
www.electronicsworld.co.uk
How medical technology benefi ts from railway technology “The requirements in medical technology are very similar,” explains Dr Jungmann. This applies to regulatory requirements, required reliability, long lifecycles, high performance computing capacity and environmental conditions. Mobile ventilators, for example, which are used by emergency medical services, must reliably withstand extreme conditions. They can fall anywhere at any time, get wet, or be exposed to direct sunlight, and must always function reliably despite shocks, vibrations and electromagnetic radiation in ambulances, helicopters, and even airplanes. The same applies to many devices in medical offices or clinics. “Only a few manufacturers can produce computing hardware at such a high level. For us, however, it’s part of our daily routine.”
Comprehensive computing portfolio for all types of medical devices duagon offers a variety of embedded and computing hardware for medical and laboratory equipment. Systems used in intensive care, such as ventilators, dialysis machines, infusion systems, anesthesia machines, patient monitors and defi brillators, require robust, reliable and compact embedded hardware without its own housing. This is why Embedded System Modules (ESM), COM Express modules, and the use of Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) are particularly well suited for these applications. For large-scale equipment such as surgical robots, MRI or CT scanners, modular computing systems – for example, based on CompactPCI Serial – are available. They are characterised by high maintainability, versatile confi guration options, and, when needed, enormous computing power. All duagon products can operate without fans – an
important consideration both in terms of hygiene in sterile environments and in terms of reliability. Another major advantage is that duagon offers standard products in its portfolio but can fl exibly adapt them to customer requirements, even for medium-volume orders. Hardly any other manufacturer of embedded hardware offers similar fl exibility or has comparable experience. This reduces development costs and time while also providing the highest possible fl exibility in product design.
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