Archer Materials Limited (ASX:AXE) has made a breakthrough in its plans to miniaturise key biosensor components of its lab-on-a-chip device as part of its graphene-based technology development.
The Lab-on-a-chip devices form part of the multibillion dollar deep-tech economy, catalysed by the global need for point of care medical diagnostics and testing.
The key biosensor components of its biochip technology is being miniaturised onto silicon wafers; a technology development milestone required prior to validating commercial advantages of ultra-sensitivity and device integration. Translating the biochip sensor components onto silicon wafers would also enable high volume chip production – required for any future retail applications of the biochip.
The company has now successfully demonstrated that it can fabricate nanosize biosensor components of 100-150 nanometer features on silicon wafers. This is significant, as in August 2020, prior to the company utilising local semiconductor foundry fabrication techniques, it was limited to one sensor per ~1 cm2; the company has now, with its in-house capability, miniaturised key biosensor components to chip-formats on silicon by nanofabrication translating to approx. over one million sensor components within a 1 cm2 area.
CEO Dr Mohammad Choucair said the sophisticated processes employed by Archer and its collaborators aim to locally manufacture high-value medical diagnostic technology at world-class facilities like the Research and Prototype Foundry, directly aligns to the Australian Government’s strategic manufacturing priorities, and facilitates Archer’s scale-up in the global semiconductor industry.
Archer has attracted talented technologists to work on a promising, potential solution to a global challenge that has significant socio-economic implications. As we ramp up our biochip development, we will strategically bridge industry capability gaps, and where possible, locally,” Dr Choucair said.
“At Archer, our staff have a proven track record of producing intellectual property that is worth protecting internationally. As we solve for significant technological barriers in our biochip development, the company will rapidly translate this knowledge into strong IP assets that would underpin high value, long-term commercialisation.”
The company has recently brought on permanent staff to pursue areas of highest value-added activities in its biochip development.
Archer’s team has grown to include expertise spanning semiconductor device fabrication, nanoscience and technology, advanced materials engineering, and molecular biology.
Cross-functional skills capability now exists within the Archer team, i.e. team members are able to contribute to both the biochip and 12CQ quantum computing chip development. Archer is now able to expand on its commercial access-and-use of some of the best instrumentation in the world to address future biochip development milestones and accelerate commercialisation.
Archer’s biochip design principles involve using proprietary graphene-based materials as integrated circuits, to form the key sensing elements in its lab-on-a-chip technology. The biochip end-use is initially aimed at addressing the complex detection of diseases affecting the respiratory system, as they remain the world’s most deadly communicable diseases.
Lab-on-a-chip devices integrate several biological laboratory functions on a single chip, one being biosensing, and others including sample delivery, for better diagnostics. The largest technological barriers to commercialising such devices involve nanofabrication. This is the current focus of Archer in its biochip development.
