Archer further enhances biochip gFET design for advanced sensing and sends to commercial foundry partner

Highlights

• Archer Materials has advanced its biochip gFET design to improve its detection and control capabilities which link to the goal of single device multiplexing.
• The advanced gFET design is aimed at allowing the biochip to handle liquid samples to test for multiple diseases at once on a single chip, with potential for re-use capabilities.
• Archer has improved its biochip system capabilities towards automated data analysis so end users can extract high quality data with greater efficiency.
• The advanced gFET design has been sent to an additional foundry partner for a whole wafer run for validation, with delivery of chips expected by the end of 2023, and represents a critical milestone in the commercialisation pathway for Archer’s biochip.

SYDNEY, Australia, July 30, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Archer Materials Limited (“Archer”, the “Company”, “ASX: AXE”), a semiconductor company advancing the quantum computing and medical diagnostics industries, has developed a next generation biochip fabrication to better detect and control disease samples on a single graphene field effect transistor (“gFET”) design. The design has been sent to a commercial foundry partner for a whole four-inch wafer run for validation.

The first-generation hardware and software in the system platform announced on 13 July 2023 was designed to run using a chip with single isolated gFETs as sensors, as gFETs offer an ultrasensitive approach to analyte detection over conventional electronic sensors used in current lab-on-a-chip devices.

Archer’s next generation gFET design is now paving the way for an early biochip system platform that has single-device multiplexing, meaning the biochip technology would be able to sense different liquid samples to test for multiple diseases at once.

This more advanced design is a critical milestone in the commercialisation pathway for the biochip, which will potentially enable end-users to detect multiple diseases from one single chip.

The gFET design also has functional surfaces and components, for both the sensor and control of the biochip platform. There is also an integration of gFET design components that allow for the real-time fine tuning and control of the electronic properties of the graphene. This has the potential advantage of biosensors that are re-usable, leading to an extended device lifetime.

In addition, Archer has improved its biochip system platform testing capabilities to develop a more accurate sensor. The upgraded automated testing platform conducts both control software and readout hardware with improved efficiency. The software is also progressing towards automated data analysis, so end users can extract high quality data.