Fabrication of Nanopores Using Controlled Dielectric Breakdown

Nanopore manufacturing technology is related to the research process of nanopore detection technology. However, with many traditional methods including FIB, it is still a great challenge to obtain small-scale nanopore with a diameter of about 2 nm. In this work, nanopores of 5 nm or less were fabricated on SiNx membranes using pulsed voltage or constant voltage by controlled dielectric breakdown. The Labview program is designed to judge the fabrication of the nanopore and automatically cut off the voltage in time to limit the nanopore to a small scale. We measured the ion current through the nanopore using a patch clamp amplifier, and plotted the I-V image. Then the diameters of the nanopores were roughly calculated by the formula. Here, it was found that it is easier to fabricate small-scale nanopores using a constant voltage than a pulsed voltage. Probably because the nanopore is fabricated and enlarged in a very short time at the pulse voltage. Therefore, this nanopore manufacturing method has the advantages of fast and high efficiency, low cost, and the achievement of small-scale nanopore.