Burnerphone
| Burnerphone | |
|---|---|
| Developer | Molecular Reality Corporation |
| Type | Research unit for making nanopores by controlled dielectric breakdown |
| Release date | Not released |
| Status | Withdrawn from commercial plans |
The Burnerphone is a compact research unit for making nanopores by controlled dielectric breakdown, developed by Molecular Reality Corporation between about 2021 and 2023.[1] It was meant to let users make pores themselves, in thin membranes, with pulses of voltage. The company later "pivoted away from commercial sale" of the unit because of existing intellectual property on dielectric breakdown, and decided that its pores would be made centrally, on wafers, before they reach the instrument.[1] In 2024 and 2025 the company's chatbot described the Burnerphone as "a modification of the MR1", its older handheld, and declined to say more.[1]
Background
Pores in solid membranes are usually made in one of two ways, which the company's field guide describes as "beams of ions, a kind of atomic scale sandblasting, or by dielectric breakdown, where a voltage punches the hole for you."[2] The first method drills each pore with a focused ion or electron beam, in expensive instruments. In its early years the company bought silicon pores drilled this way for "about $100 each", and broke most of them in the first week while learning to wet them.[3]
The second method needs only salt water and a power supply. A voltage of several volts across a silicon nitride membrane a few tens of nanometers thick produces a field approaching a volt per nanometer, strong enough for a small leakage current to flow through the insulator. The current grows until the membrane breaks down at a single point; cutting the voltage as soon as the current jumps leaves one pore a few nanometers wide, which further pulses can widen.
The technique was described in 2014 by a group at the University of Ottawa, who used pores made this way to detect DNA.[4] Because the pore is made in the liquid, it is wet from the moment it exists. That removes the step that Kemmish ranks first among the field's "dumb problems": "how do you get water through the pore?"[3] In 2019 another group showed that the spark from an electric lighter of the kind sold for cigarettes and candles, which contains a small Tesla coil, could do the same.[5]
Development
The company's interest in making its own pores is older than the unit. Its 2022 technical overview describes "nanopore printing" with electrical discharges, including those from "a ~$20 Tesla coil lighter".[6] The team tried the lighter. "Yes, we actually tried this," Kemmish wrote of the 2019 paper in 2026. "Results were messy," and after "one night or two of tinkering", "we may or may not have made pores, but it's worth trying again."[7]
The Burnerphone was the company's attempt at a dedicated unit. It belongs to the period the company groups with the demonpore 64 console and the Molecular Aquarium.[1] Websites the company ran in 2024 and 2025 carried an interactive parts list for a circuit board named "BurnerPhoneMB".[1]
Its existence was treated as a secret. The knowledge base written for the company's chatbot in 2024 and 2025 answered the question "What is 'burnerphone'?" with: "The first rule of BurnerPhone is not to talk about BurnerPhone. BurnerPhone is a modification of the MR1 that we'll be shipping in the next 3-6 months for early device users. It's a bit of a secret for now."[a] Asked whether the MR1 could perform "nanopore printing", the chatbot answered: "That's what the BurnerPhone will do, but... hush..."[1] A schematic sheet of the MR1 shown in a company video labels one output of the board's digital-to-analog converter "BURN".[8]
Pivot
The unit was not released. Company records describe the change of plan as a pivot away from commercial sale, made to avoid existing patents on dielectric breakdown, in favor of making pores on wafers in a central facility.[1] The decision fits the company's later design work. Its open desktop instrument, the MR1 Nanopore Reader, takes a ready-made chip clamped in a cartridge.[9] The company's 2026 description of the device it wants to build, "standardized, pre-wetted and self-calibrating", likewise assumes a pore that arrives finished.[1]
See also
Notes
- ^ The first line follows the first rule of the fight club in Chuck Palahniuk's 1996 novel Fight Club and the 1999 film based on it.
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Company records". Molecular Reality Corporation. October 2026.
- ^ "Keltar's Field Guide to Molecular Reality". Molecular Reality Corporation. August 2026.
- ^ a b Kemmishtree (March 29, 2026). "Focused Ion Beam pore". EQBio-OS.
- ^ Kwok, Harold; Briggs, Kyle; Tabard-Cossa, Vincent (2014). "Nanopore fabrication by controlled dielectric breakdown". PLoS ONE 9 (3): e92880. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0092880.
- ^ "Push-Button Method To Create Nanopores Using a Tesla-Coil Lighter". ACS Omega 4 (1): 226-230. 2019. doi:10.1021/acsomega.8b02660.
- ^ Kemmishtree (March 28, 2026). "2022 sci-tech overview". EQBio-OS.
- ^ Kemmishtree (March 29, 2026). "making pores with a $20 Tesla coil lighter". EQBio-OS.
- ^ Keltar explains MR1 (Video). EpicQuestBio.
- ^ "MR1 Nanopore Reader". GitHub. October 16, 2026.