Abstract
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 λ-DNA samples.
Highlights
DNA sequencing technologies play an important role in analyzing DNA nucleotides and can be utilized in the medical and pharmaceutical fields to precisely diagnose diseases and provide personalized medicines [1,2]
We estimated the nanopore diameters by substituting these conductance values into Equation (3). These results indicate that nanopores 1, 2, 3, and 4 had diameters of 7.74, 7.72, 7.72, and 7.70 nm, respectively, which are satisfied with sub-10 nm nanopore goal required for DNA analysis
We proposed and designed a low-area, four-channel on-board controlled dielectric breakdown (CDB) system to be used for various nanopore applications and demonstrated its ability to produce four nanopore sensors with an average diameter of approximately 7.70 nm
Summary
DNA sequencing technologies play an important role in analyzing DNA nucleotides and can be utilized in the medical and pharmaceutical fields to precisely diagnose diseases and provide personalized medicines [1,2]. Since the development of Sanger sequencing in 1977 [3], various sequencing methods have been devised to reduce processing costs and time. Recent DNA sequencing methods are based on polymerase chain reaction (PCR) techniques, which can amplify specific DNA targets into millions of copies. Solid-phase amplification is a representative DNA sequencer product that currently occupies more than 90% of the global genomic sequencing markets [4]. PCR-based sequencing methods can only support sequencing in short read lengths (100–150 bp) and require complex DNA sample preparation and processing procedures, all of which result in analyses that have high costs and low speeds. It is essential to develop time-, cost-, and area-effective sequencing methods
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