A newly developed 48 American wire gauge (AWG) coaxial cable for medical applications from Hitachi Metals Group Ltd. uses five fluorocarbon polymer monofilaments as a wrapped insulation layer surrounding the central stranded 7/56 AWG wires. The cable is spiral-shielded and secured with an extremely thin polyester tape spiral wrap.

Relative to cables with foam fluorocarbon polymer extruded directly over the wire, the new design provides increased insulation coverage and a greater ability to control end product diameter when working with such a fine gauge wire. The final diameter is .008 inches (0.21 mm), which is smaller than a 250 um optical fiber.

The cable is intended to make ultrasound diagnostic equipment and endoscopes more user-friendly and capable of producing higher-definition diagnostic images. A 50 AWG design is currently under development.