Abstract

In this paper we present a method to fabricate an aperture in a silicon wafer that can be used to suspend a freestanding lipid bilayer membrane. The design offers the feature of scalability of the aperture size into the submicron range. Lipid bilayer membranes formed across the aperture in the oxidized silicon substrate show a gigaohm sealing resistance. The stability of these membranes allowed the insertion of a nanometer-sized ion channel protein (OmpF porin) and the measurement of voltage dependent gating that can be expected from a working porin ion channel.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)451-457
Number of pages7
JournalSuperlattices and Microstructures
Volume34
Issue number3-6
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 2003

Keywords

  • Biosensors
  • Lipid bilayers
  • Silicon devices

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Materials Science
  • Condensed Matter Physics
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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