Micro-X proves that shrinking the X-ray could open giant doors

• Miniaturised X-rays open new markets for ASX-listed Micro-X
• Head CT for stroke diagnosis to enter Australian hospital trials in coming months
• US deals show the company’s tech can scale internationally

Special Report: An Aussie innovator, Micro-X, has shrunk the X-ray into a portable platform, now edging its Head CT into trials and proving its tech can win big in the US.

For most of the last century, X-ray machines have been big, heavy and stubbornly unchanged.

Inside their bulky tubes sits a tiny filament, glowing hot like an old incandescent bulb, spitting out electrons to generate an image.

Reliable, yes. Portable? Not even close.

Micro-X (ASX:MX1), an Adelaide-born company now spreading its wings in the US, is turning that model on its head.

Its pitch is simple: shrink the X-ray, make it portable, and suddenly doors open to a world of new applications – in hospitals, ambulances, airports, and even defence.

“At its heart, Micro-X’s business is about having been able to miniaturise X-ray,” CEO Kingsley Hall explained to Stockhead.

“Our X-ray tubes aren’t the old thermionic kind that need to be heated up and cooled down, we use a proprietary cold cathode technology, so there’s no heat.”

The company’s “NEX” platform – short for Nano Electronic X-ray – is the technology making it all possible.

What makes NEX different

Hall draws a neat comparison: traditional tubes are like incandescent bulbs; NEX tubes are more like LEDs.

Both create the same output, but one relies on old-fashioned heat, the other on precise electronic control.

The secret sits on a sliver of material no bigger than half a thumbnail.

Micro-X deposits millions of carbon nanotubes on that surface. When a high voltage current is passed across them, the nanotubes stand up and release electrons.

Those electrons hit an anode, producing X-rays, with no heat and no moving parts.

That simplicity changes everything.

Instead of giant machines weighing hundreds of kilos, the company’s tubes come in at just 300 grams.

“About the size of two golf balls,” Hall put it.

From there, portability becomes a design principle rather than an afterthought.

From hospitals to ambulances

Micro-X Head CT’s portability isn’t just a nice-to-have in medicine. It can be the difference between life and death.

Take stroke, the world’s second-biggest killer.

The only effective clot-busting drug (TPA) works best if delivered within an hour of onset. But doctors won’t administer it until a brain scan rules out a bleed.

Traditionally, that means waiting until the patient reaches a hospital.

“What our product does is, because it’s only 75 kilograms, it will fit into the sidewall of a standard ambulance,” Hall explains.

“That ambulance could then attend to a stroke patient at the point of impact and rule out a bleed.

“You can then rule out a bleed on the spot and give TPA straight away, saving lives and slashing long-term healthcare costs.”

The Head CT, developed under an $8 million Australian government partnership, is set for human trials in late 2025, with regulatory filings eyed for 2026.

If it delivers, the idea of “stroke diagnosis in the street” could move from theory to frontline reality.

Micro-X is also building a full-body CT for the US that matches hospital scans at a fifth of the weight, light enough to roll out in a van for remote patients.

Rover Plus gains traction

While the CT products are still working through development pathways, Micro-X already has runs on the board with its Rover Plus mobile X-ray system.

Designed to be wheeled through ICUs, surgical wards, sporting fields, or military tents, the Rover gives full medical imaging performance without the bulk.

After a year-long evaluation process, the Rover recently secured its biggest commercial milestone, a supply agreement with one of the largest healthcare providers in the US (undisclosed), covering more than 700 facilities.

“This opens the doors for member hospitals to buy the Rover without the need to run an evaluation or tender for new equipment.”

Checkpoint, reinvented

Medical imaging is only half the story.

The same portability that makes NEX ideal for ambulances also makes it appealing to airport security.

With backing from the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Micro-X has been developing self-service checkpoint portals that look more like small elevators than conveyor belts.

Passengers step inside, slip their bag into a miniature CT scanner powered by NEX, and within 60 seconds the system reconstructs a 3D image of both person and luggage.

If nothing suspicious shows up, the doors slide open and the traveller is on their way. That’s a far cry from the shuffle-and-wait process most people endure today.

The DHS deal is worth up to AU$29 million, with around AU$22 million already committed.

Elsewhere, a deal with Malaysian firm Billion Prima, worth $5.6 million, grants rights to manufacture NEX driven baggage scanners across Southeast Asia.

The core IP, meanwhile, stays firmly in Adelaide’s hands.

Where it’s heading next

Contracts with DHS, ARPA-H in the US, and the Australian Stroke Alliance provide non-dilutive funding that keeps development on track without eroding shareholder equity.

Hall is clear-eyed about what comes next.

“It’s really about commercialising the technology,” he said.

“We want to do more of that business, and that’s exactly the type of business we should be doing, going after larger, targeted, higher volume, higher margin opportunities.”

Micro-X has always pitched itself as a company redefining X-ray, but the bigger picture is about access.

Smaller, lighter machines mean healthcare that travels to the patient instead of the other way around.

“We’re the only company that’s been able to commercialise carbon nanotube-based X-rays globally,” Hall said.

“There’s some really big opportunities on the short-term horizon.”

The biggest three, Hall said, are growing the company’s Rover sales, getting Head CT into clinical trials, and monetising its security applications.

If Micro-X can keep proving itself, investors may one day look back on this as the moment a small Aussie player turned X-rays portable… and unlocked billion-dollar markets.

This article was developed in collaboration with Micro-X, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.