A method for fabricating CMOS back-end-of-line-compatible solid-state nanopore devices.

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Nanotechnology
• Biophysics

Background:

• Solid-state nanopores (ssNPs) are powerful nanoscale sensors for single-molecule analysis.
• ssNPs offer potential for molecular information storage due to their high resolution.
• Integrating ssNPs with on-chip electronics requires compatible fabrication methods.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore and validate lower-temperature, back-end-of-line (BEOL) compatible deposition techniques for silicon nitride (SiNₓ) membranes.
• To enable the fabrication of ssNPs suitable for on-chip integration and high-throughput data processing.
• To maintain high signal-to-noise ratios for sensitive single-molecule detection.

Main Methods:

• Investigated alternative, lower-temperature deposition methods for SiNₓ membrane fabrication.
• Fabricated ssNPs using these BEOL-compatible techniques.
• Characterized the physical, chemical, and electrical properties of the resulting membranes and nanopores.
• Performed single-molecule experiments to assess nanopore performance.

Main Results:

• Successfully demonstrated the feasibility of lower-temperature SiNₓ deposition techniques.
• Generated low-noise ssNPs using these alternative fabrication methods.
• Confirmed the capability of these ssNPs to perform single-molecule experiments.

Conclusions:

• Lower-temperature, BEOL-compatible deposition methods are viable for producing high-quality SiNₓ membranes for ssNPs.
• These advancements pave the way for integrating ssNP sensors with semiconductor electronics for on-chip solutions.
• The developed techniques support the advancement of molecular information storage and advanced biosensing platforms.