Cannabix Achieves New Benchmark for FAIMS Marijuana Breathalyzer Technology
UF startup Cannabix Technologies Inc., developer of marijuana breathalyzer devices for law enforcement and the workplace, reports that engineers have made major advancements on its high-field asymmetric waveform ion mobility spectrometry (FAIMS) breathalyzer for analyze sensitivity and portability.
In recent live breath testing of marijuana smokers, the Cannabix FAIMS bench device has demonstrated the sensitivity, resolution and discrete responses needed to isolate ∆9-tetrahydrocannabinol (TH”) – the psychoactive component of marijuana that causes impairment as well as other key marijuana metabolites (such as 11-hydroxy THC) and other cannabinoids from the thousands of other compounds present in breath. This kind of selectivity is significant because it provides far more pharmacokinetic information than detection of THC alone, and can allow for greater discernment of a subject’s recency of cannabis use. This has been achieved with a testing set up requiring only a few breaths which is collected and analyzed on-site within seconds, without any sample preparation needed. Development of the Cannabix FAIMS drug screen device is aimed primarily for the law enforcement market.
Furthermore, over recent months engineers have focussed on systematically reducing the size of the FAIMS electronics and components, and developing a fully battery powered system, further paving the way for a portable device. Engineers are building a novel system that meets the power and heat dissipation requirements in the field for a complex high voltage square wave generator. Critical achievements in relation to power supply, air flow, cooling, electronics and detector module are well underway and showing promising early results.
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