The agreement is to advance development of Archer’s Biochip potassium ion sensor for testing of chronic kidney disease. The agreement will be in two stages, with each stage of work to be carried out over three months at a total estimated cost of £222,000.
The partnership is intended to accelerate technical progress towards meeting the blood potassium sensing target product profile (TPP) using a gFET. Work performed by Paragraf with Archer will complement the activities ongoing in Sydney.
Stage one will involve developing and optimising measurement protocol, improving gFET quality checks, and proprietary work on the sensor functionalisation. The expected outcomes include enhanced sensor accuracy, as well as data to improve foundry fabrication processes and device qualification procedures.
Stage two will build on stage one and include chip redesign to move from lab testing devices to more product representative chips. The teams will also work on sensor stability, lifetime and robustness. These are key metrics in the TPP.
It is expected that the work will result in several pieces of intellectual property (IP) that will enable Archer’s sensing product. All product-specific IP generated from the work in the partnership will be owned by Archer, in accordance with the agreement.
Paragraf is developing the commercialisation of mass-produced graphene-based electronic devices using standard semiconductor processes. Graphene Hall Sensors (GHS) and Graphene Field-Effect Transistors currently in production, and other semiconductor devices in development, make use of Paragraf’s proprietary graphene growth process to fully harness the wonder material’s myriad features.
Archer will be working with Paragraf’s engineering and business development teams with both teams leveraging their expertise in a range of fields from semiconductor manufacturing, biological sensing, chemistry, and the medical diagnostics industry. The development and learning on the sensing chip will feed directly into the ongoing work around integration with other sensing components as well as the product’s cartridge design.
Commenting on the Paragraf partnership, Simon Ruffell, CEO of Archer, said, “Formalising an agreement with Paragraf ensures the acceleration of the Biochip’s development. The work will be critical for producing a first sensor prototype which will, in turn, allow us to continue building strategic partnerships to support latter stages of product development and clinical trials for regulatory approval.”
