Multichannel Flow Cell for a Nanopore Array Sensor

Solid-state nanopore has been attracting remarkable research interest owing to its extensive potential in biological sensing applications, the robustness, and the possibility of a large-scale integration. A reliability and measurement time are two important criteria for practical uses of a nanopore sensor. An integration of nanopores into an array and simultaneous measurement are an effective approach to increase accuracy and to reduce measurement time. Recently, we have developed 4×4 SiN membrane arrays. However, the flow cell in this system had a bottle neck of exploiting all 16 membranes due to a real estate issue of flow paths. Another bottle neck was the generation of the air bubble that could cause the electrical conductance error.
In this study, the mechanism of those issues is investigated. A novel 16-channel flow cell made by a 3D printer is introduced. In this flow cell, the flow paths are arranged in both parallel and orthogonal direction to the membrane surface; and the distance between the membrane surface and the flow path is adjusted to prevent the generation of the air bubble. Nanopores were successfully yielded in all 16 membranes by dielectric breakdown technique.