We present a new strategy for fabricating a silicon
nanopore device allowing straightforward fluidic integration and
electrical as well as optical monitoring. The device presents
nanopores of diameters 10 nm to 160 nm, and could therefore
be used to obtain solvent-free free-standing lipid bilayers from
small unilamellar vesicles (SUV) or large unilamellar vesicles
(LUV). The silicon chip fabrication process only requires front
side processing of a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate. A poly-
dimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microfluidic interface is assembled on
the silicon chip for fluidic handling and electrical addressing. We
detail the electrical specifications of our device and some perspec-
tives showing that the use of an SOI substrate is a convenient way
to reduce the electrical noise in a silicon nanopore device without
the need of a photolitographic patterned passivation layer. We
then demonstrate simultaneous electrical and optical monitoring
by capturing negatively charged fluorescent nanoparticles.
Finally, in the perspective of solvent-free free-standing lipid bilay-
ers, we show that incubation of SUV results in a drastic increase
of the device electrical resistance, which is likely due to the for-
mation of a free-standing lipid bilayer sealing the nanopores.

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• Integration of solid-state nanopores into a functional device designed for electrical and optical cross-monitoring