Fabrication of Reinforced Nanoporous Membranes

A fabrication technology to create reinforced nanoporous membranes of 60 nm thick is described. The technology uses a variety of micromachining processes to form a reinforced membrane. Block copolymer micelle formation is used to define the pores 20 to 30 nm in diameter that are subsequently etched in the membrane using Deep Reactive Ion Etching (DRIE). The membrane is made of a silicon nitride polysilicon sandwich that allows a post-etching reduction of the pore size though the oxidation of the polysilicon.