Versarien Plc, the advanced engineering materials group, has launched a new biosensor chip utilising novel graphene barristor sensor platform technology.

These graphene barristor devices, developed in South Korea by A Barristor Company (ABC), will utilise chemical vapour deposition (CVD) grown graphene, that is produced under a Versarien licence.

Versarien has signed a distribution agreement with ABC to distribute the products in the UK and Europe.

A barristor (triode device) is a new type of graphene‐based transistor with a Schottky barrier between graphene and silicon. The current modulation is amplified more than 10,000 times compared to graphene field‐effect transistors (GFET), enabling the barristor transistors to overcome many GFET limitations.

In these new products, the graphene surface is terminated with either pyrenebutanoic acid succinimidyl ester (PBASE) or a customer preferred linker. PBASE is one of the most frequently used linkers for the surface modification of field‐effect transistor (FET) biosensors based on carbon nanotubes and graphene.

The products can be supplied as individual chips or on a wafer scale. It is expected that the CVD graphene used in the products will be supplied by MCK Tech Co. Ltd in South Korea, which is an existing licensing partner of Versarien, and it will also undertake some of the device fabrication.

The range of sensor products to be distributed by Versarien may be expanded at a later date based on ABC's product developments, such as in infrared detection, gas/chemical detection, temperature detection or multiple sensor on a chip technology.

Dr Stephen Hodge, Versarien CEO, said: "I am delighted that we have signed this distribution agreement with ABC to market their innovative graphene-based biosensors in the UK and Europe.

"I had the privilege of collaborating with ABC's CEO, Prof. Hyun‐Jong Chung, for several years prior to joining Versarien. It is exciting to see this sensor platform come to fruition and I anticipate it will drive significant advancements in medical diagnostics.

"This agreement will allow Versarien to further benefit from the IP licensed to MCK Tech and we look forward to continuing to work with ABC both regarding the newly launched biosensors and as they expand their sensor capabilities."