Imec, the Belgian research and innovation hub, has achieved a milestone in molecular sensing by demonstrating the first wafer-scale fabrication of solid-state nanopores using extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography.
The advance, unveiled at this week’s IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM 2025), could transform nanopore technology from a laboratory curiosity into a scalable platform for life sciences and healthcare applications.
Solid-state nanopores are nanometre-sized holes etched into silicon nitride membranes that allow individual molecules such as DNA or proteins to pass through, producing measurable electrical signals. Unlike biological nanopores, which rely on protein channels, solid-state variants are more robust, tuneable and compatible with standard semiconductor manufacturing, making them better suited for high-throughput biosensing.
Until now, producing solid-state nanopores at scale has proved challenging. Achieving uniform pore sizes across large wafers while maintaining nanometre precision has limited their adoption beyond research labs.
Imec’s approach combines EUV lithography with a spacer-based etching technique to fabricate pores as small as 10 nanometres across 300mm wafers, with a high degree of uniformity. The team said further refinements could shrink pores below 5 nanometres.
Electrical tests and DNA translocation experiments confirmed the nanopores’ sensing capabilities, showing a signal-to-noise ratio of 6.2, indicating high sensitivity for molecular detection.
“A key strength of Imec is that we can bring advanced semiconductor tools, like EUV lithography, to life sciences,” said Ashesh Ray Chaudhuri, R&D Project Manager at Imec. “We have demonstrated that solid-state nanopores can be fabricated at scale with the precision needed for molecular sensing. This opens the door to high-throughput biosensor arrays for healthcare and beyond.”
The breakthrough has potential applications in rapid diagnostics, personalised medicine, and molecular data storage. Imec is also developing modular readout systems with scalable fluidics to support application-driven chemistry development and is inviting life science tool developers to test the platform.
A related paper, “A 256-Channel Event-Driven Readout for Solid-State Nanopore Single-Molecule Sensing with 193 pArms Noise in a 1 MHz Bandwidth,” will be presented at the 2026 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC), highlighting a proof-of-concept ASIC readout for next-generation nanopore sensors.
