Originally developed for use in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiments, the Medipix technologies have made the journey from CERN to applications across a wide range of sectors - an outstanding example of how technology developed at CERN can create societal impact.

The Medipix Collaborations develop hybrid pixel detector readout chips for radiation imaging and other particle detection applications. Since the first Medipix1 chip, providing noise-free, single-photon counting technology, a family of Medipix technologies has emerged. The Medipix2 chip includes improved spatial resolution; Timepix, a modified version of Medipix2, enables time or amplitude measurements; and finally, Medipix 3 and Timepix3 extend the functionality by determining the energy level of each individual photon detected.

The industrial partners and licence holders commercialising the Medipix technology range from established enterprises to young start-up companies, and from applications within medical imaging to education, space dosimetry, and material analysis. In 2016, the Medpix4 Collaboration was launched, comprised of ten member institutes - again seeking to take this cutting-edge trechnology to the next level, this time by designing readout chips which can be tiled on four sides seamlessly.