ams wins Federal funding in Austria to bolster pandemic control through a highly-accurate, cloud-connected lateral flow test device for SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) providing test results in around 15 minutes

News facts:

  • ams awarded funding by the Austrian Federal Ministries for Transport, Innovation, and Technology, and for Digital and Economic Affairs

  • ams will use the funding for the creation of a lateral-flow based, medical cloud-connected solution to detect the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) virus

  • The easy-to-use, lab-free solution provides highly accurate results for pandemic control in around 15 minutes at point of care

Premstaetten, Austria (December 1, 2020) -- ams (SIX: AMS), a leading worldwide supplier of high performance sensor solutions, announces that it has been awarded funding by the Austrian Federal Ministries for Transport, Innovation, and Technology, and for Digital and Economic
Affairs, to speed development of a cloud-connected, highly-sensitive, accurate and unique Lateral Flow Test (LFT) to be used in the fight against the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) virus. 

The solution is based on the ams spectral sensor AS7341L and offers results for pandemic control in around 15 minutes, for example, at the point of care, at home, schools, airports, businesses, care facilities, and wherever needed. With the ambition to detect the virus at earlier stages of infection, even before symptoms have appeared, a highly-sensitive ams spectral sensor is utilized to read out each LFT objectively, matching lab-based measurement performance at a higher sensitivity than the human eye. 

ams is honored to participate in the EUREKA funding program and join the Federal Ministries in the fight against the pandemic. EUREKA is the world’s biggest public network for international cooperation in R&D and innovation, present in over 45 countries via national funding agencies. 

Unique new digital LFT solution has speed, access, and cost advantages over PCR testing

Current PCR testing needs expansive labs with many logistic and handling steps, which can result in restricted capacity leading to slow results to patients and high-cost tests. In addition, the un-comfortable but necessary nasal testing swab process requires trained staff. ams will offer technology for an approximate 15-minute rapid test solution to enable a fast, cost-efficient, highly-accurate, and cloud-connected LFT which uses saliva to detect antigen and blood to detect anti-body for the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) virus.

“The unique digital LFT solution from ams and our partners is a rapid, saliva-based antigen test which will become an essential critical weapon in the fight to resume the many economic and social activities that comprise what we call ‘normal life.’ The availability of this EUR 586,000 funding – EUR 314,000 Cov19Scan and EUR 273,000 AntigenSense – accelerates the development time to bring the lateral flow test and cloud solution to market to fight the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic,” says Jennifer Zhao, Executive Vice President for the division Advanced Optical Sensors at ams.

The cloud-connected rapid Lateral Flow Test solution from ams and its partners can be produced at scale to support wide-spread availability. The solution digitizes the result from the lateral flow test strips eliminating complicated logistics and clinical processing. The data is immediately available in a digital format and can be uploaded to national or global monitoring systems if desired. 

Connected to secure medical services 

The digital LFT cartridge will send encrypted data together with a unique test ID to a digital app on the user’s smartphone. The app will act as a user guide and provide encrypted data transfer to a medical-grade, secure cloud including user information and geographical position. This secure cloud will analyze the data based on a lot-specific ID. The result can be sent to the user and also healthcare services enabling pandemic control. Supported standards include all software components being based on IEC-62304*, GDPR and HIPAA cybersecurity, in addition to data storage requirements. 

For more information on ams’ AS7341L spectral sensor please go to https://ams.com/AS7341L.