Archer Materials Limited (ASX:AXE) has commenced development towards a key technological milestone of achieving sub-10 nanometre biochip components. Archer staff are now directly operating the world-class lithography systems and instrumentation required to achieve this milestone in a research and prototype foundry.
CEO Dr Mohammad Choucair said sub-10 nanometres (nm) represents global best-in-class in the semiconductor industry
Miniaturisation to below 10 nm is required for the successful development of Archer’s biochip (1 nanometre is a billionth of a metre).
The company recently made a step-change in its biotech development by miniaturising key biosensor components to nanoscale chip formats on silicon wafers with feature sizes of 100-150 nm from cm size (i.e. 1 million+ sensor components in the same cm2 area).
Dr Choucair said company staff are now trained to directly utilise the Elionix ELS-125 electron-beam lithography system and associated instrumentation (Image 1) (“E-beam”), in Sydney, Australia.
Archer aims to use the E-beam to create sub-10 nm features for its prototype biochip devices. In doing so, the Company would overcome significant barriers to entry, including pattern design and process optimisation, for on-chip fabrication of biosensor components.
Archer has progressed to one of the most advanced forms of nanofabrication after recently translating biosensor components onto silicon wafers,” Dr Choucair said.
“We are expanding on this strength with in-house capability to build a robust biochip IP portfolio. This is key to Archer’s long-term growth, and near-term speed of execution in its deep tech development.
“Best-in-class capabilities in nanofabrication is a global competitive advantage in the multibillion-dollar point of care medical diagnostics industry. One of the reasons why there are few companies in the world developing and commercialising biochips is because it’s difficult to achieve precision engineering at the nano scale.”
He said Archer’s biochip design principles involve using proprietary graphene-based materials in integrated circuits (i.e. to fabricate graphene-based transistors), to form the key sensing elements in its biochip technology. The largest technological barriers to commercialising such devices involve nanofabrication that link to high-value advanced manufacturing.
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‡. Archer’s aim to miniaturise its biochip transistor components for graphene integration would enable broad-scope functionality in multiplexing for disease detection.
