Sixth Wave Innovations (SIXW) has announced that it has signed an agreement with the Alberta Center for Advanced Micro/Nanotechnology Products (ACAMP) to integrate radio frequency-based technology with the company’s Accelerated Molecularly Imprinted Polymers (AMIPs) virus-detection technology. The goal, according to Sixth Wave, will be to create smart prototypes, such as the company’s proposed SmartMask.
ACAMP is a not-for-profit organization that develops specialized technologies for customers. Its clients have access to the center’s equipment, facilities and expertise, as well as its network of members that support and develop advanced technologies and manufacturing. These clients range from cleantech and conventional energy companies to healthcare, medical, agriculture and forestry applications.
“Sixth Wave is excited to work with such an experienced research team to achieve the full potential of our vision for the AMIPs product line,” said Jonathan Gluckman, Sixth Wave’s CEO, in a prepared statement. “ACAMP provides a unique combination of skills and a breadth of knowledge in RF-based technologies and manufacturing capabilities. This combination significantly streamlines our development of advanced product features and has the potential to reduce development and manufacturing costs.”
The nanotechnology company offers patented solutions designed for the extraction and detection of target substances at the molecular level, using molecularly imprinted polymers. The firm is currently in the process of a commercial rollout of its Affinity cannabinoid purification system, as well as its IXOS line of extraction polymers for the gold-mining sector, and it is at the development stages of a rapid diagnostic test for viruses under the AMIPs label. Sixth Wave is focused on nanotechnology architectures for the detection and separation of viruses, biogenic amines and other pathogens.
SIXW says it is engaging ACAMP for its expertise in RF technology, with the goal of pairing the technology with AMIPs. Such a pairing would enable the integration of commercially available radio frequency identification tags within the AMIPs product line, the company explains, thereby enabling the wireless transfer of data to a smartphone, or to a mobile or fixed RFID reader. This feature of the proposed SmartMask, according to SIXW, enables the real-time collection of testing data from any population during the onset of a viral outbreak. Work is now commencing, further to the agreement that was executed in April 2021.
ACAMP is an industry-led technology product-development center that helps users scale innovative ideas from proof-of-concept to manufactured products by providing access to multidisciplinary engineers, technology experts and specialized equipment. Its facilities comprise more than 14,000 square feet of lab space and house more than $15 million worth of product-development equipment. Core competencies include hardware, software and firmware design, as well as simulation, prototyping, testing, characterization, low-volume production, and design for manufacturing.
The organization’s development engineers can help customers with component specification, develop and optimize a design, and review existing designs to identify improvement opportunities. Users can access simulation software to understand and optimize complex product design before building an initial prototype, SIXW reports, enabling them to speed up the development cycle. In-house development equipment allows for the production of components during the prototyping process.
Physical and environmental testing of prototypes is performed in-house, including highly accelerated life testing (HALT) to validate hardware performance for expected use cases, while inspection and failure analysis equipment is used to detect component failures. For low-volume manufacturing, limited production runs of prototypes and final products allow field testing and demonstration of hardware. Customers can use the ACAMP system to source and align with third-party manufacturers.
The AMIPs platform utilizes synthetic polymers to detect viruses, such as the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19. The integration of RFID, according to SIXW, will allow the diagnostic devices to be paired with a smartphone or an RFID reader in order to simplify results analysis, record keeping and reporting. AMIPs is based on Sixth Wave’s patented and patent-pending molecularly imprinted polymer systems, which capture viruses using synthetic materials rather than biological antibodies. The addition of ACAMP to SIXW’s network of development partners, including the University of Alberta and the La Ki Shing Institute of Virology, allows access to laboratory facilities and equipment to facilitate the prototyping of AMIPs into specialized integrated systems.
“The solutions we develop will provide the first prototype AMIPs with advanced systems integration of multiple components and technologies,” Gluckman said in the prepared statement, “and will be the basis for launching various products, resulting in high-throughput screening, point-of-care and self-use tests.” The company notes that it is not claiming its product can eliminate, cure, contain or detect COVID-19 (or the SARS-2 coronavirus), and it has not yet applied for regulatory approval for the use of any products contemplated by the agreement.