A big round of applause to Prof. Mitch LI, Assistant Professor of the Division of Integrative System and Design (ISD), and his research team for their accepted article on Advanced Functional Materials, one of the top journals in this field. The research introduced a new approach to creating 3D microstructures with higher simplicity and repeatability, which is a significant improvement in advanced manufacturing, especially in emerging miniaturized applications, e.g. invasive robotics, minimized drug delivery, implanted batteries and nano photonics.

Self-assembly is a powerful strategy for creating 3D artificial structures. The existing thin film release techniques limits structural flexibility and complexity. Prof. Mitch LI and his team proposed a localized laser scribing strategy that can guide the self-assembly of 2D thin films into 3D microstructures. The laser-induced heating and momentum can release the films and roll them into various microstructures. This method allows accurate control of shapes, curvatures, orientations, and sizes for the fabricated rolls. No pre-patterning or post-drying is needed. The flexibility and simplicity of this method represents a significant improvement over existing self-assembly techniques and may enrich thin film self-assembly materials and applications.

Let’s take a look at this video and understand how a localized laser scribing strategy prepares gold micro-rolls.