Chinese researchers develop world's smallest portable CT scanner for field analysis of fossils and relics

Compact and portable device can be used to analyse fossils and archaeological relics in the field, developer says

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Ling Xinin Ohio

Published: 12:00pm, 16 Sep 2026

Chinese researchers have developed the world’s smallest CT scanner, a portable device designed to produce images of tiny fossils and archaeological relics.

Built by the Shandong province-based Rayim, the Xtomo-Cube is about the size of a desktop speaker and weighs just 6kg (13.2lbs).

“The device can be held in one hand and is the world’s smallest and lightest CT system, earning it the nickname ‘palm-sized CT scanner’,” Liu Baodong, a senior engineer at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and general manager of Rayim, told the Science and Technology Daily on Monday.

The machine had a spatial resolution of 80 micrometres, roughly the width of a human hair, and could analyse objects from snail shells to medicine capsules, Liu said.