We propose a wafer-scale technique for nanostructure formation inside vertically oriented, throughmembrane nano-pores. It uses 50 nm monocrystalline silicon pillars as a mold, embedded in a silicon nitride membrane formed in an innovative step. The proposed technique paves the way towards advanced functionalization of parallel oriented nano-pores for actuation, sensing, filtering/trapping purposes.

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The ORCID identification number(s) for the author(s) of this article can be found under https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.201803283. Arrays of nanoscale pyramidal cages embedded ina silicon nitride membrane are fabricated with an order of magnitude miniaturization in the size of the cages compared to previous work. This becomes possible by combining the previously published wafer-scale corner lithography process with displacement Talbot lithography, including an additional resist etching step that allows the creation of masking dots with a size down to 50 nm, using a conventional 365 nm UV source. The resulting pyramidal cages have different entrance and exit openings, which allows trapping of nanoparticles within a predefined size range. The cages are arranged in a well-defined array, which guarantees traceability of individual particles during post-trapping analysis. Gold nanoparticles with a size of 25, 150, and 200 nm are used to demonstrate the trapping capability of the fabricated devices. The traceability of individual particles is demonstrated by transferring the transmission electron microscopy (TEM) transparent devices between scanning electron microscopy and TEM instruments and relocating a desired collection of particles.