Fabrication of Solid State Nanopore in Thin Silicon Membrane Using Low Cost Multistep Chemical Etching

Nanopore-based analysis is currently an area of great interest in many disciplines with the potential for exceptionally versatile applications in medicine. This work presents a novel step towards fabrication of a single solid-state nanopore (SSSN) in a thin silicon membrane. Silicon nanopores are realized using multistep processes on both sides of n-type silicon-on-insulator (SOI) <100> wafer with resistivity 1-4 Ω·cm. An electrochemical HF etch with low current density (0.47 mA/cm²) is employed to produce SSSN. Blue LED is considered to emit light in a narrow band region which facilitates the etching procedure in a unilateral direction. This helps in production of straight nanopores in n-type Si. Additionally, a variety of pore diameters are demonstrated using different HF concentrations. Atomic force microscopy is used to demonstrate the surface morphology of the fabricated pores in non-contact mode. Pore edges exhibit a pronounced rounded shape and can offer high stability to fluidic artificial lipid bilayer to study membrane proteins. Electrochemically-fabricated SSSN has excellent smoothness and potential applications in diagnostics and pharmaceutical research on transmembrane proteins and label free detection.