Localised solid-state nanopore fabrication via controlled breakdown using on-chip electrodes

Abstract

Controlled breakdown has recently emerged as a highly accessible technique to fabricate solid-state nanopores. However, in its most common form, controlled breakdown creates a single nanopore at an arbitrary location in the membrane. Here, we introduce a new strategy whereby breakdown is performed by applying the electric field between an on-chip electrode and an electrolyte solution in contact with the opposite side of the membrane. We demonstrate two advantages of this method. First, we can independently fabricate multiple nanopores at given positions in the membrane by localising the applied field to the electrode. Second, we can create nanopores that are self-aligned with complementary nanoelectrodes by applying voltages to the on-chip electrodes to locally heat the membrane during controlled breakdown. This new controlled breakdown method provides a path towards the affordable, rapid, and automatable fabrication of arrays of nanopores self-aligned with complementary on-chip nanostructures.

Optical Nanopore Sensors for Quantitative Analysis

“…Moreover, microRNA sequences could be specifically detected based on their unzipping dynamics from a probe strand as determined from the duration of the change in fluorescence signal . This imaging technique has also been used to determine the position and number of nanopores in a solid-state membrane. − …”

The new era of high throughput nanoelectrochemistry

“…Also, the use of controlled dielectric breakdown serves as a versatile approach to fabricate multiple nanopores in situ. 56 An attractive aspect in this case is the direct fabrication of nanopores in microfluidic devices, which can greatly reduce the numbers of fabrication and assembly steps involved in the production process. 57 An alternative approach relies on multibarreled glass nanopipettes that can be independently controlled (Figure 1C), 58,59 allowing for trapping and dynamic manipulation of individual molecules.…”

Localized Nanopore Fabrication via Controlled Breakdown

“…In addition to pure insulating materials, CBD has demonstrated its ability to generate nanopores in metal-insulating layers [ 120 , 121 ]. This capability provides a new path for integrating nanopores into nanodevices with a solid-state nanopore perfectly aligned with the on-chip electrodes [ 84 ], which is otherwise challenging for traditional approaches of nanopore fabrication.…”

“…Their work provides a fundamental understanding of the mechanism of nanopore formation during CBD, as discussed in Section 2.2 . Fried et al [ 84 ] have also reported a new CBD strategy to fabricate multiple nanopores locally using on-chip electrodes. The nanopores are self-aligned at the position where an on-chip electrode and electrolyte solution are in contact with the opposite side of the membrane.…”

“…Firstly, multiple nanopores can be formed by CBD. During the past five years, several works have attempted to reduce the formation of multiple nanopores by different approaches [ 10 , 83 , 84 , 85 , 86 , 87 , 88 , 89 , 90 , 91 , 92 ]. The recent review by Fried et al has summarized the progress in this area thoroughly [ 93 ].…”