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AssigneeThe Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University
InventorsDavid M. Bloom, Mark C. Peterman, Jonathan M. Ziebarth
Estimating the term…
The invention provides microfabricated silicon substrates and devices having extremely small apertures (termed “nanoapertures”) and methods for producing such nanoapertures. The devices have a nanoaperture (which may have a diameter ranging from about a few millimeters to as small as a few nm) across a substrate effective to connect two regions separated by the substrate. The devices are suitable for the formation of lipid bilayer membranes across the apertures, and for use in devices such as biosensors. Substrates and devices may include multiple nanoapertures, which may each support a lipid bilayer membrane, allowing fault tolerant devices such as fault-tolerant biosensors, and allowing devices able to sense more than one target molecule.
A method for forming an artificial lipid bilayer membrane at a nanoaperture on a silicon substrate, comprising:
A device comprising a silicon substrate including a plurality of nanoapertures, a hydrophobic surface, and an artificial lipid bilayer membrane at one of said nanoapertures and in contact with said hydrophobic surface.
A system comprising:
A silicon substrate including a nanoaperture, a hydrophobic surface, and an artificial lipid bilayer membrane at said nanoaperture and in contact with said hydrophobic surface.
A silicon substrate including a hydrophobic surface, a plurality of nanoapertures and a plurality of artificial lipid bilayer membranes, wherein at least one of said membranes is at one of said nanoapertures and in contact with said hydrophobic surface.
A device comprising a silicon substrate including a nanoaperture and a hydrophobic surface, and an artificial lipid bilayer membrane at said nanoaperture and in contact with said hydrophobic surface.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.