Happy Holidays from the Meller lab family to Yours.

Dr. Yulia Marom and Dr. Navneet C. Verma from our lab. present the fabrication process of our sensor that can detect single biological molecules - in a 'Holidays' edition.
The tiny sensor (only 4x4 mm), is made of a thin silicon piece that is coated with photoresist (the red material in the video), and the special pattern is exposed to UV light by digital lithography.

The development of the sensor is a significant breakthrough in the early diagnosis of diseases, allowing early treatment and saving lives. 

Congratulations to Eran on his ACS Nano paper reporting fast and deterministic nanopore drilling

In a latest publication, we develop a custom algorithm (called NLDA) and software to deliver a deterministic fashion of sub-nanopore laser drilling. We provide a full recipe to obtain the fabricated pores with a preset diameter (error) in less than two minutes. The in situ technique enables instant protein sensing following the nanopore formation. Our findings bring insights into the laser-drilled nanopore 3D shape, which contributes to the sensor’s biomolecule capture capabilities.

Read the full article

Automated, ultra-fast laser-drilling of nanometer scale pores and nanopore arrays in aqueous solutions

In our recent publication (Advanced Functional Materials ) we show that low-intensity laser etching and nanopore formation in amorphous silicon-nitride (SixN) freestanding films highly depends on the Si to N ratio. Increasing the relative Si content yields orders of magnitude increase in etch rate, which is further accelerated in alkaline environments, enabling the fabrication of nanopore arrays within tens of seconds at any arbitrary location.