Tier 1 funding has been awarded for Interdisciplinary research that combines faculty experts in materials, policy, and computer science to investigate the use of magnetic microwires as a novel authentication tag. This technology could provide a unique and secure method of validating the authenticity of pharmaceutical products. This vision takes on extreme urgency as the global COVID-19 vaccine rollout is undoubtedly accompanied by the simultaneous development of illicit supply chains to meet the demands. Worldwide sales of counterfeit medicines were envisioned to top US$ 75 billion in 2019, a 90% rise over five years[1]. As the manufacture, supply, and distribution of drugs become more complex, so does the need for innovative technology-based solutions to protect patients globally.
Magnetic microwires are inexpensive, non-toxic, and have unique high-frequency magnetic resonance responses (“magnetoimpedance”), in the GHz frequency range. This is based on existing microwave RFID (radio frequency identification) technology. However, instead of employing the standard semi-active or active microchip tags, the enabling material is based on arrangements of highly novel glass-coated magnetic microwires (Figure 1). It is proposed to obtain and analyze proof-of-principle data concerning the response of a variety of magnetic microwire arrangements for uniqueness and leverage machine learning to create a model to analyze and predict microwire responses.
