Pusiying Medical Secures Nearly 100 Million Yuan in Series A Funding after Overcoming Low-Liquid Helium Superconducting Magnet Technology | Exclusive by 36Kr
36Kr learned that Suzhou Puxing Medical recently completed a nearly 100 million yuan Series A financing round. It was led by Ivy Capital, with existing shareholder Neusoft Capital continuing to increase its investment, and Xiaoming Investment participating in the follow - on investment. This round of financing will be used to accelerate the industrialization and expansion of the low - helium siphon cooling technology PhaseXCool® in superconducting magnet devices, covering three major fields: medical magnetic resonance (MRI) equipment, industrial magnetic Czochralski single - crystal superconducting magnet systems, and precision scientific instruments.
Dr. Ni Zhipeng, the founder of Puxing Medical, has a career trajectory centered around the "superconducting magnet." During his tenure at institutions such as the Institute of Plasma Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Electrical Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Philips Healthcare, and Neusoft Medical, he made multiple breakthroughs in superconducting magnet research and development. In 2019, as the chief scientist, he led the National Key R & D Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology, "Research and Development of Low - Liquid - Helium Low - Temperature Superconducting Magnets" (Project No.: 2019YFC0117500).
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is the cornerstone of modern medical diagnosis. Its core component, the superconducting magnet, can only operate in an extremely low - temperature environment below minus 268.95 degrees Celsius (4.2K). The traditional method of creating a low - temperature superconducting environment is to immerse the superconducting coil system in a "bathtub" filled with liquid helium.
Although this method of obtaining low temperatures is stable and feasible, it comes with high costs and significant risks. First of all, liquid helium is a non - renewable and scarce strategic resource. More than 95% of China's helium resources rely on imports, mainly from regions such as the United States and Russia. If international geopolitics affects the supply of liquid helium, it will directly impact the lifeblood of China's high - end medical equipment manufacturing.
Secondly, the cost is extremely high. In recent years, the price of liquid helium has soared from twenty or thirty yuan per liter to two or three hundred yuan per liter. Over the entire life cycle of operation, a 3.0T MRI device consumes thousands of liters of liquid helium, with a cost as high as millions of yuan, almost equivalent to the material manufacturing cost of the device. This expense places a heavy burden on patients, hospitals, and medical insurance.
Many years ago, the three global medical imaging giants, GE, Philips, and Siemens (GPS), foresaw the above - mentioned difficulties and invested heavily in researching and developing the next - generation low - liquid - helium technology. Now, GPS's low - liquid - helium MRI devices are being sold as high - end product lines.
Puxing Medical, founded by Dr. Ni Zhipeng, aims to develop domestic low - liquid - helium superconducting magnet technology to achieve a technological leap. Its independently developed PhaseXCool® technology realizes effective heat exchange between the GM cold head and the key internal components of the magnet through the gas - liquid phase change of helium. Liquid helium absorbs heat during the evaporation process and then condenses and flows back through the GM refrigerator, ensuring the stable operation of the magnet.
The core breakthrough of the new - generation low - liquid - helium magnet developed by Puxing Medical is to reduce excessive reliance on liquid helium. It directly uses the secondary cold head (3 - 4K) of the GM refrigerator as a cold source. Through the low - helium siphon cooling technology, it efficiently exchanges heat with the cold mass of the magnet (including key components such as superconducting coils, superconducting switches, and superconducting joints), achieving a fast and stable extremely low - temperature environment for large - scale superconducting magnets. This ensures that the superconducting magnet can still operate stably below the 4.2K liquid - helium temperature range without consuming liquid helium. This process relies on the precise design of sealed pipes and heat exchangers to achieve self - driven cooling of the gas - liquid two - phase cycle.
The difficulty of this innovative technological path lies in the fact that without the natural enclosure of liquid helium, all core components must rely on pipelines for uniform and efficient heat exchange. Otherwise, local temperature rises may occur, affecting the stability of the superconducting magnet. To address this, the R & D team proposed an optimized algorithm that can not only meet the magnetic field uniformity of 10 ppm but also control the spherical harmonic distribution of the magnetic field. While reserving space for low - temperature pipes, it still maintains the magnetic field performance required for high - quality imaging.
In addition, the new technology has also been optimized for weight reduction in its structural design. By eliminating the traditional coil skeleton and using lightweight connecting structural parts, the "cold mass" is significantly reduced, and the burden on the refrigerator is lessened. The weight of the whole machine is nearly halved compared to traditional magnets, dropping from 4.5 - 6 tons to about 3 tons, greatly reducing the threshold for manufacturing and installation.
For hospitals, this means lower infrastructure requirements, more flexible installation, and simultaneously reduced usage and maintenance costs. Moreover, since a huge amount of liquid - helium cost is saved, the comprehensive operation and maintenance cost of the magnet can be reduced by 50%.
Furthermore, the fully enclosed self - circulating system eliminates the risks of liquid - helium leakage and quench, and the recovery time after shutdown is also shortened to one - third of that of traditional equipment.
In addition to its application in the new - generation MRI, this extremely low - temperature and high - magnetic - field technology platform is also expected to be applied in other fields.
For example, in the field of precision radiotherapy, the MR - Linac, which combines magnetic resonance and radiotherapy equipment (linear accelerator), is one of the most advanced cancer treatment devices at present, with a single - set price of nearly 100 million yuan in China. The technology of the split - type magnetic resonance image - guided system required for this equipment can also be realized through Puxing Medical's low - helium superconducting magnet platform.
In addition, in the field of brain science research, extremely high - field MRI systems such as 7T and 9.4T are cutting - edge tools for researching brain diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. Traditional high - field devices are costly due to their huge liquid - helium consumption and high maintenance difficulty. The new - generation low - liquid - helium technology is expected to significantly lower the usage threshold and accelerate the development of brain science research.
In the industrial field, it also has considerable application value. In the semiconductor and photovoltaic industries, the 12 - inch large - size high - purity single - crystal silicon required for chip manufacturing and N - type photovoltaic cells must use the "magnetic Czochralski (MCZ)" process, and the core of this process is the superconducting magnet. The above - mentioned technology is expected to provide domestic core equipment with a more stable magnetic field and lower cost for this field.
According to Ni Zhipeng's plan, Puxing Medical will deliver the first batch of 3.0T low - liquid - helium MRI superconducting magnets to major domestic customers for testing and verification of the whole - machine system before next June. The magnetic Czochralski single - crystal magnets for the industrial field are also planned to be delivered to customers for testing by the end of next year.
Data from Grand View Research shows that the global MRI device market size was approximately $7.1 billion in 2024 and is expected to grow to $10.3 billion by 2030. Research by DataHorizzon shows that the market size of low - liquid - helium MRI may expand from $2.8 billion in 2024 to $5.9 billion in 2033, with a clear growth trend. The successful implementation of this technology will promote the "self - controllability of core components" of domestic high - end medical equipment and drive the penetration of MRI and other equipment into county - level hospitals, reducing the threshold for patients' examinations.