Cambridge spinout Sorex Sensors is importing a design already used for telecoms filters and multiplexes to construct compact and high-sensitivity sensors.
Sorex Sensors, a UK-based sensor technology developer spinout from University of Cambridge, has secured £1.2m ($1.6m) in a round backed by Cambridge Enterprise, the university’s tech transfer office.
Angel syndicates Cambridge Angels and Cambridge Capital Group also contributed funding. Parkwalk Advisors previously supplied Sorex with an undisclosed sum in April 2018, though it was not named as part of this “initial” round.
Sorex Sensors is manufacturing microelectromechanical-based (Mems) sensors that consist of a thin piezoelectric film mounted on a silicon wafer that is designed to resonate.
Initial uses are expected to include gas molecule sensing in consumer goods, particle monitoring systems and measuring film thickness for deposition purposes.
The approach follows a design known as the film bulk acoustic resonator which is already used to make telecommunications filters and multiplexes. It could be compact enough to slot onto single-chip arrays and sensitive enough to detect the weight of an average virus particle while exhausting relatively little energy.
Sorex’s core intellectual property has been patented in the US and EU. The spinout was co-founded by the head of Cambridge’s Electrical Engineering division, Bill Milne, together with two other members of the department, Andrew Flewitt and Mario De Miguel.
The Cambridge trio were helped by University of Warwick’s Julian Gardner and Marina Cole, the latter of whom specialised in resonant sensors, as well as Enrique Iborra, a professor at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid.
Elaine Loukes, investment director at Cambridge Enterprise, will join Sorex’s board of directors together with Richard Parmee of Cambridge Angels.
Loukes said: “We are delighted to be supporting this new company and believe that this sensor offers unique advantages in many applications with the triad of benefits; ultra-sensitivity, low power and ability to detect multiple targets on one chip.”