The advantage of nanofluidic devices is from its feasibility to be integrated with electronic circuitry. Because they are built using the same manufacturing technology, it is possible to make a nanofluidic system with digital integrated circuit on a single chip. Therefore, the control and manipulation of particles in the electrolyte can be achieved in a real-time.
Fabrication of nano-channels is categorized into top-down and bottom-up methods. Top-down methods are the conventional processes utilized in the IC industry and Microelectromechanical systems research. It begins with photolithography on a bulk silicon wafer. Bottom-up methods, in contrast, starts with atoms or molecules with intrinsic nano-scaled dimension. By organize and combine these building blocks together, it is able to form a nanostructures as small as only a few nanometers.