MinION Disassembly/Teardown

Aug 10, 2026

Mike has posted a teardown of the MinION and flowcell over on Youtube1.

I previously wrote up notes on the MinION based on what Oxford Nanopore has disclosed here and here. They are pretty close to what is shown in Mike’s video, but there are a few interesting pieces of information. Notably:

The sensor array is bigger than it needs to be.
The ASIC manufacturing partner is revealed.
We can confirm that there are no expensive or custom parts in the MinION itself.

The MinION uses an inexpensive Spartan 6, and Cypress FX3 USB interface:

As previously estimated this is likely a BOM cost in the $200 range.

Mike also looked at the sensor array. What is somewhat puzzling about this array is the size:

Most of the array doesn’t sit over theASIC and is not exposed to the fluidic path, so is kind of useless. Perhaps the plan was to couple the array with a larger ASIC at some point?

Mike also took images of the well structure, which matches patents almost exactly:

Mike also noted that the ASIC is marked “Aeroflex”, a fabless semiconductor company for analog applications:

Interesting stuff and more or less in line with my previous thoughts! As expected the Minion is a very inexpensive and simple device. This suggests the recently cancelled P2 Solo also had a BOM cost much lower than its $10K selling price.

The MinION flowcells are interesting, using a PCB interposer between the ASIC and the array seems awkward. An approach they seem to have moved away from in the PromethION.

The MinION flowcell design is more than a decade old at this point. And it seems in need of either withdrawal or renewal. Things like the SmidgION have been mooted in the past. But seem to have disappeared from the Oxford Nanopore roadmap.

Personally I’d bring back something like the P2 Solo, and withdraw the MinION. I don’t think you’d lose much revenue doing this (MinION revenue is shrinking anyway).

Interesting stuff! Hopefully we will see a complete PromethION teardown in the future too!