Low-Area Four-Channel Controlled Dielectric Breakdown System Design for Point-of-Care Applications

초록

In this study, we propose a low-area multi-channel controlled dielectric breakdown (CDB) system that simultaneously produces several nanopore sensors. Conventionally, solid-state nanopores are prepared by etching or drilling openings in a silicon nitride (SiNx) substrate, which is expensive and requires a long processing time. To address these challenges, a CDB technique was introduced and used to fabricate nanopore channels in SiNx membranes. However, the nanopore sensors produced by the CDB result in a severe pore-to-pore diameter variation as a result of different fabrication conditions and processing times. Accordingly, it is indispensable to simultaneously fabricate nanopore sensors in the same environment to reduce the deleterious effects of pore-to-pore variation. In this study, we propose a four-channel CDB system that comprises an amplifier that boosts the command voltage, a 1-to-4 multiplexer, a level shifter, a low-noise transimpedance amplifier and a data acquisition device. To prove our design concept, we used the CDB system to fabricate four nanopore sensors with diameters of <10 nm, and its in vitro performance was verified using lambda-DNA samples.

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