Low stress nanoporous SiNx membrane for cell culture

Micromachined nanoporous membrane for cell culture is one of the promising applications for biomolecular separation and immunoisolation, in which Silicon Nitride (SiNx) receives particular interest due to its several advantages compared to polymeric membranes. Our works focused on fabricating nanoporous SiNx layer with near zero residual stress. This paper investigated the influence of Radio Frequency (RF), power and reactant gases to the SiNx deposition rates and residual stress, and developed the optimised process to produce near zero stress SiNx layer. By applying this technique, nanoporous SiNx membranes have been fabricated and tested for cell culture. By cultivating the mouse D1 mesenchymal stem cells on top of the nanoporous membrane, the results showed that mouse D1 mesenchymal stem cells were able to grow well. This shows that the nanoporous membrane can be used as the platform for interfacing with living cells to become biocapsules for biomolecular separation and immunoisolation.