Patent Number: 
Section: claims

1. A system for trapping a charged particle in a trapping volume comprising: at least three electrodes forming at least a part of a liquid container, the trapping volume being within the liquid container, wherein the at least three electrodes are adapted for creating a time-varying periodic multipole electric potential in the trapping volume, wherein the multipole electric potential is at least a quadrupole. 2. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least three electrodes are capable of being connected to at least one power supply that supplies electricity causing the at least three electrodes to create the time-varying periodic multipole electric potential in the trapping volume. 3. The system of claim 2, wherein the at least three electrodes are three electrodes arranged as three layers. 4. The system of claim 3, wherein a middle electrode is adopted to confine the charged particle to a plane and the remaining two electrodes are adopted to confine the charged particle in a direction that is substantially perpendicular to the plane. 5. The system of claim 4, further comprising insulation between each pair of adjacent electrodes of the three electrodes. 6. The system of claim 3, wherein the liquid container is a nanopore. 7. The system of claim 6, wherein the nanopore is etched through the three electrodes. 8. The system of claim 2, wherein the at least three electrodes are four coplanar electrodes capable of confining the charged particle to a plane. 9. The system of claim 8 further comprising two electrodes confining the charged particle in a direction substantially perpendicular to the plane. 10. The system of claim 9, wherein the four coplanar electrodes are patterned on a wafer. 11. The system of claim 10, wherein the wafer is a SiO2/Si wafer. 12. The system of claim 10, wherein the liquid container is formed by the four coplanar electrodes and the wafer. 13. The system of claim 12 further comprising a layer, wherein the four coplanar electrodes are positioned between the wafer and the layer. 14. The system of claim 13, wherein the layer comprises polydimethylsiloxane. 15. The system of claim 14, wherein the layer forms a microfluidic channel that provides access to the container. 16. The system of claim 1, wherein the liquid container contains a liquid with the charged particle. 17. The system of claim 15, wherein the liquid container contains a liquid with the charged particle, the liquid having been supplied though the microfluidic channel. 18. A method of using the system of claim 1, the method comprising applying a time-varying periodic voltage bias to the at least three electrodes. 19. A method comprising:(a) supplying a liquid containing a particle to be trapped to a liquid container at least partially formed by at least three electrodes; and(b) applying a time-varying periodic voltage to the at least three electrodes, thereby trapping the particle in a trapping volume within the liquid container. 20. The method of claim 19, wherein the at least three electrodes generate a multipole electric potential that is at least quadrupole when the voltage is applied.