TAIPEI -- Wistron will form a medical business group by year-end, becoming the latest PC ODM to expand into other, higher-margin markets.

Chairman Simon Lin said the contract design and assembly company, the sixth largest in the world, will begin producing non-intrusive medical inspection instruments later this year. He did not put a target on the expected revenues, but the firm needs to fill a shortfall brought on by lukewarm PC sales.

In doing so, Wistron joins Flextronics, Sanmina and other EMS companies that have either lessened their dependence on PCs or quit the market entirely.

Wistron has also invested $21 million since 2010 in a Texas-based subsidiary battery and PCB recycling unit called Wistron GreenTech.