Archer Materials Limited has built a single chip integrated pulsed electron spin resonance ("p-ESR") microsystem, with its research partner Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne ("EPFL") in Switzerland. Archer and EPFL intend to use the p-ESR microsystem to perform complex measurements involving the potential electron spin manipulation of Archer's 12CQ quantum materials. The measurements will be ongoing throughout CY2024.

The miniaturisation and electron spin sensitivity of the p-ESR micro system also allows Archer to explore opportunities in developing quantum sensors, advanced spectrometers, and analytical devices. The p-ESR microsystem is a tiny, integrated device designed to detect and analyse the behaviour of unpaired electrons, that potentially carry spin quantum information, in materials at a very small scale. It measures 0.7 mm2 in size and it includes integrated circuit components like micro coils, amplifiers, filters, and mixers, all working together to detect and amplify signals related to the behaviour of unpaired electrons.

Significant innovation is required to design, develop, and build an operational p-ESR microsystem. The p-ESR chip is manufactured using a 130 nm SiGe BiCMOS technology (IHP SG13G2Cu). This follows research and development by Archer and EPFL on detecting electron spins in its quantum materials using continuous wave ESR ("cw-ESR") chips built with high electron mobility transistor ("HEMT") and complementary metal-oxide semiconductor ("CMOS") technology.

The new p-ESR chip technology is a significant advance over the HEMT and CMOS chips in both design and functionality. The technical details of the design, characterisation, and operation of the p-ESR chip will be made publicly available as a pre-print scientific article in an open-access repository this week.