Fabrication of Micro-Patterned Chip with Controlled Thickness for High-Throughput Cryogenic Electron Microscopy

Summary

A newly developed micro-patterned chip with graphene oxide windows is fabricated by applying microelectromechanical system techniques, enabling efficient and high-throughput cryogenic electron microscopy imaging of various biomolecules and nanomaterials.

Abstract

A major limitation for the efficient and high-throughput structure analysis of biomolecules using cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) is the difficulty of preparing cryo-EM samples with controlled ice thickness at the nanoscale. The silicon (Si)-based chip, which has a regular array of micro-holes with graphene oxide (GO) window patterned on a thickness-controlled silicon nitride (Si_xN_y) film, has been developed by applying microelectromechanical system (MEMS) techniques. UV photolithography, chemical vapor deposition, wet and dry etching of the thin film, and drop-casting of 2D nanosheet materials were used for mass-production of the micro-patterned chips with GO windows. The depth of the micro-holes is regulated to control the ice thickness on-demand, depending on the size of the specimen for cryo-EM analysis. The favorable affinity of GO toward biomolecules concentrates the biomolecules of interest within the micro-hole during cryo-EM sample preparation. The micro-patterned chip with GO windows enables high-throughput cryo-EM imaging of various biological molecules, as well as inorganic nanomaterials.

Introduction

Cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) has been developed to resolve the three-dimensional (3D) structure of proteins in their native state^1,2,3,4. The technique involves fixing proteins in a thin layer (10-100 nm) of vitreous ice and acquiring projection images of randomly oriented proteins using a transmission electron microscope (TEM), with the sample maintained at liquid nitrogen temperature. Thousands to millions of projection images are acquired and used to reconstruct a 3D structure of the protein by computational algorithms^5,6. For successful analysis with cryo-EM, cryo-sample preparation has been automated by plunge-freezing the equipment that controls the blotting conditions, humidity, and temperature. The sample solution is loaded onto a TEM grid with a holey carbon membrane, successively blotted to remove the excess solution, and then plunge-frozen with liquid ethane to produce thin, vitreous ice^1,5,6. With the advances in cryo-EM and the automation of sample preparation⁷, cryo-EM has been increasingly used to solve the structure of proteins, including envelope proteins for viruses and ion channel proteins in the cell membrane^8,9,10. The structure of envelope proteins of pathogenic viral particles is important for understanding viral infection pathology, as well as developing the diagnosis system and vaccines e.g., SARS-CoV-2¹¹, which caused the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, cryo-EM techniques have recently been applied to material sciences, such as for imaging beam-sensitive materials used in battery^12,13,14 and catalytic systems^14,15 and analyzing the structure of inorganic materials in solution-state¹⁶.

Despite noticeable developments in cryo-EM and relevant techniques, limitations exist in cryo-sample preparation, hindering high-throughput 3D structure analysis. Preparing a vitreous ice film with optimal thickness is especially important for obtaining the 3D structure of biological materials with atomic resolution. The ice must be thin enough to minimize background noise from electrons scattered by the ice and to prohibit overlaps of biomolecules along the electron beam path^1,17. However, if the ice is too thin, it can cause protein molecules to align in preferred orientations or denature^18,19,20. Therefore, the thickness of vitreous ice should be optimized depending on the size of the material of interest. Moreover, extensive effort is typically needed for the sample preparation and manual screening of ice and protein integrity on the prepared TEM grids. This process is extremely time-consuming, which hinders its efficiency for high-throughput 3D structure analysis. Therefore, improvements in the reliability and reproducibility of cryo-EM sample preparation would enhance the utilization of cryo-EM in structural biology and commercial drug discovery, as well as for material science.

Herein, we introduce microfabrication processes for making a micro-patterned chip with graphene oxide (GO) windows designed for high-throughput cryo-EM with controlled ice thickness²¹. The micro-patterned chip was fabricated using microelectromechanical system (MEMS) techniques, which can manipulate the structure and dimensions of the chip depending on the imaging purposes. The micro-patterned chip with GO windows has a microwell structure that can be filled with the sample solution, and the depth of the microwell can be regulated to control the thickness of the vitreous ice. The strong affinity of GO for biomolecules enhances the concentration of biomolecules for visualization, improving the efficiency of the structure analysis. Furthermore, the micro-patterned chip is composed of an Si frame, which provides high mechanical stability for the grid¹⁹, making it ideal for handling the chip during sample preparation procedures and cryo-EM imaging. Therefore, a micro-patterned chip with GO windows fabricated by MEMS techniques provides reliability and reproducibility of cryo-EM sample preparation, which can enable efficient and high-throughput structure analysis based on cryo-EM.

Protocol

1. Fabrication of micro-patterned chip with GO windows (Figure 1) Deposit the silicon nitride. Deposit low-stress silicon nitride (SixNy) on both sides of the Si wafer (4 inch diameter and 100 µm thickness) using low-pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) at 830 °C and a pressure of 150 mTorr, under a flow of 170 sccm dichlorosilane (SiH2Cl2, DCS) and 38 sccm ammonia (NH3<…

Representative Results

A micro-patterned chip with GO windows was fabricated by MEMS fabrication and 2D GO nanosheet transfer. Chips for micro-patterning were mass-produced, with about 500 chips produced from one 4 in wafer (Figure 1B and Figure 2A,B). The designs of the micro-patterned chips can be manipulated using different designs of the chromium mask (Figure 2) during the photolithography procedure. The fabricated micro-patterned chi…

Discussion

The microfabrication processes for producing micro-patterned chips with GO windows are introduced here. The fabricated micro-patterned chip is designed to regulate the thickness of the vitreous ice layer by controlling the depth of the micro-hole with GO windows depending on the size of the material to be analyzed. A micro-patterned chip with GO windows was fabricated using a series of MEMS techniques and a 2D nanosheet transfer method (Figure 1). The major advantage of using the MEMS fabric…

Materials

1-methyl-2-pyrrolidinone (NMP)	Sigma Aldrich, USA	443778
Acetone
AFM	Park Systems, South Korea	NX-10
Aligner	Midas System, South Korea	MDA-600S
AZ 300 MIF developer	AZ Electronic Materials USA Corp., USA	184411
Cryo-EM holder	Gatan, USA	626 single tilt cryo-EM holder
Cryo-plunging machine	Thermo Fisher SCIENTIFIC, USA	Vitrobot Mark IV
Focused ion beam-scanning electron microscopy (FIB-SEM)	FEI Company, USA	Helios NanoLab 650
Glow discharger	Ted Pella Inc., USA	PELCO easiGlow
Graphene oxide (GO) solution	Sigma Aldrich, USA	763705
Hexamethyldisizazne (HMDS), 98+%	Alfa Aesar, USA	10226590
Low pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD)	Centrotherm, Germany	LPCVD E1200
maP1205 positive PR	Micro resist technology, Germany	A15139
Potassium hydroxide (KOH), flake	DAEJUNG CHEMICALS & METALS Co. LTD., South Korea	6597-4400
Raman Spectrometer	NOST, South Korea	Confocal Micro Raman System HEDA
Reactive ion etcher (RIE)	Scientific Engineering, South Korea	Lab-built
SEM	Carl Zeiss, Germany	SUPRA 55VP
Si wafer	JP COMMERCE, South Korea		4" Silicon wafer, P(B)type, (100), 1-30ohm.c m, DSP, T:100um
Spin coater	Dong Ah Trade Corp., South Korea	ACE-200
TEM	JEOL, Japan	JEM-2100F