Solid-State Nanopores for DNA Data Storage

Chunhui Dai (Staff Engineer at Samsung) at ECE's 2025 Fall Colloquium

Human society is generating digital data at an unprecedented pace. While this data holds immense value for mining and analysis—especially with advances in AI and machine learning—the rising cost of long-term storage using existing technologies has created a pressing “save-or-discard” dilemma. DNA offers an ultra-dense, durable, and energy-efficient medium for long-term information storage. This talk will focus on solid-state nanopore technologies for DNA reading and sequencing. The first part will highlight atomically precise nanopore fabrication in two-dimensional (2D) materials, including material synthesis (Bernal-stacked hBN), single-atom defect engineering using electron beams, and DNA translocation detection. The second part will cover scalable, CMOS-compatible silicon nitride (SiNx) membranes and high-throughput dielectric breakdown processes for large-scale device integration. Together, these advances move us closer to practical DNA-based storage solutions, bridging nanoscale material engineering with the rapidly growing demands of next-generation data storage.