On June 7th, Sixth Wave Innovations (SIXW) announced that it has signed an agreement with the Alberta Center for Advanced Micro-Nano Technology Products (ACAMP) to combine radio frequency technology with the company’s accelerated molecularly imprinted polymers (AMIPs). ) The combination of virus detection technology aims to produce smart prototypes, such as the company’s proposed smart mask (SmartMask).

ACAMP is a non-profit organization that develops expertise for customers. Its customers can use the organization's equipment, facilities and expertise, as well as a network of members that can support and develop advanced technologies and manufacturing processes. These customers range from clean technology and traditional energy fields to medical, pharmaceutical, agricultural and forestry applications.

SIXW’s CEO Jonathan Gluckman said:“SIXW is very pleased to work with such an experienced research team to give full play to the potential of our vision for the AMIPs product line. ACAMP's RF technology and manufacturing capabilities Provides a combination of unique skills and extensive knowledge. This combination greatly simplifies our development of advanced product features and reduces development and manufacturing costs."

ACAMP provides a patented solution for extracting and detecting target substances at the molecular level using AMIPs. The organization is currently commercializing its Affinity cannabinoid purification system and the IXOS extraction polymer series for the gold mining industry, and is developing rapid virus diagnostic tests under the AMIPs label. SIXW focuses on the nanotechnology architecture used to detect and isolate viruses, biogenic amines and other pathogens.

SIXW stated that it is cooperating with ACAMP to obtain its expertise in radio frequency technology, with the goal of pairing the technology with AMIPs. This pairing will enable commercial RFID tags to be integrated into the AMIPs product line, allowing data to be transmitted wirelessly to smart phones, mobile or fixed RFID readers. The feature of the smart mask proposed by SIXW is that it can collect test data from any population in real time during the virus outbreak. According to the agreement signed in April 2021, the cooperative project is currently underway.

This laboratory center with more than 14,000 square feet can help customers formulate component specifications, develop and optimize designs, and review existing designs to determine improvement opportunities. SIXW reports that users can access simulation software to understand and optimize complex product designs before building initial prototypes, thus speeding up the development cycle. In-house development equipment allows components to be produced during the prototyping process.

The physical and environmental testing of the prototype is conducted in-house, including Highly Accelerated Life Testing (HALT) to verify the hardware performance of the intended use case, 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 and form alliances with third-party manufacturers.

The AMIPs platform uses synthetic polymers to detect viruses, such as the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19. According to SIXW, the integration of RFID will allow diagnostic devices to be paired with smartphones or RFID readers to simplify result analysis, record keeping and reporting. AMIPs are based on SIXW's patented and patent-pending molecularly imprinted polymer system, which uses synthetic materials instead of biological antibodies to capture viruses.

Gluckman said: "The solution we developed will provide the first AMIPs prototype with advanced system integration of multiple components and technologies, and become the basis for various product developments, enabling high-throughput screening, field care, and self-use testing. The company pointed out that it does not claim that its products can eliminate, cure, contain or detect the COVID-19 or SARS-2 coronavirus, and it has not applied for regulatory approval to use any products envisaged in the agreement.