Development of solid-state nanopore fabrication technologies

As the key components of nanopore-based nucleic acid sequencing systems, nanopores have drawn more and more scientific interests over these years. Although most of the early nanopore-based sequencers adopted biological nanopores, solid-state nanopores have been gradually growing in popularity due to their increased robustness and durability, control over pore geometry and surface properties, as well as compatibility with the existing semiconductor and microfluidics fabrication techniques. Besides acting as a platform for biomolecular analysis, solid-state nanopores also have great potential in many other fields such as near-field optics, nanostencil lithography and ionic logic circuitry, due to the possibility of parallel massive production. Therefore, many approaches for the fabrication of solid-state nanopores have been developed. This paper reviews the typical solid-state nanopore fabrication techniques reported to date and compares their advantages and disadvantages. The specific applications of each kind of solid-state nanopores are also summarized based on the carefully analysis of their unique morphologies and properties such as the feature size, inner structure and possibility of massive production.