Biosensors-on-Flex™ Technology

With Biosensors-on-Flex technology, Epocal converts flex circuits into biosensor arrays in a single continuous in-line manufacturing process — raw material to finished diagnostic card ready for sale in minutes. Flex circuits are adapted from industry standard smart card modules manufactured on 35mm tape-on-reel format.

The extraordinarily simple product design and manufacturing process replaces the complex designs and sensor manufacturing processes of current competitor technologies — gone are the complicated rotors, discs and cartridges containing microfabricated chips.

Epocal's patented smart card module, comprising a flexible insulator with through-going apertures and back-side contact metallization, constitutes a general biosensor array platform. Each aperture, when filled with a membrane or a reagent, constitutes a micro-bioreactor with an electrochemical detector at its base. Membranes or reagents are deposited by in-line micro-dispensing onto the 35mm module carrier resulting in the lowest cost per function of any sensor technology.

Epocal has developed proprietary membrane and reagent formulation technology for application in blood test formats that include electrolytes, dissolved gases, hematocrit, and metabolites. Epocal's first product will comprise a module with 8 tests, expandable with additional sensors to perform 12 tests per card.