Suspended Solid-state Membranes on Glass Chips with Sub 1-pF Capacitance for Biomolecule Sensing Applications

Area of Science:

• Nanoelectronics
• Nanomedicine
• Solid-state physics

Background:

• Solid-state membranes are crucial for nanoelectronics and nanomedicine, including single molecule sensors and water filtration.
• Current limitations in electronics applications include high current noise and low bandwidth due to high membrane chip capacitance (>10 pF).

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop an integrated fabrication process for growing and defining circular silicon nitride membranes on glass chips.
• To reduce membrane chip capacitance below 1 pF.
• To demonstrate low-noise, high-bandwidth DNA translocation measurements and enable suspension of other 2D materials like graphene.

Main Methods:

• Integrated fabrication process for circular silicon nitride membranes on glass chips.
• Fabrication of low-capacitance (<1 pF) membrane chips.
• Demonstration of DNA translocation measurements using the fabricated devices.

Main Results:

• Successfully lowered chip capacitance to below 1 pF.
• Achieved low-noise, high-bandwidth DNA translocation measurements.
• Demonstrated the versatility of the platform for suspending other 2D membranes, such as graphene.

Conclusions:

• The developed integrated fabrication process effectively reduces membrane chip capacitance.
• The low-capacitance platform facilitates advanced applications in nanoelectronics and nanomedicine, such as high-performance biosensing.
• This versatile platform opens possibilities for integrating various 2D materials for novel device functionalities.