Facile Handling of 3D Two‐Photon Polymerized Microstructures by Ultra‐Conformable Freestanding Polymeric Membranes

Abstract

Micro‐nano‐fabrication on objects with complex surfaces is essential for the development of technologies in the growing fields of flexible electronics and photonics. Various strategies are devised to extend the fabrication from conventional planar substrates to curved ones, however, significant challenges still exist, especially in the framework of 3D printing and additive manufacturing. In this study, a novel technique is presented to realize 3D micro‐structures on arbitrary complex surfaces providing an extreme level of conformability. This method relies on the fabrication of micro‐structures via two‐photon polymerization on polymeric nano‐membranes that can be efficiently transferred to a specific target. Ultra‐thin polymeric films are exploited as the support to suspend and transfer the printed micro‐structures on the predefined surface. The nanofilm can finally be easily removed, apart from the region underneath the printed elements where it serves as a few tens of nanometers adhesive. The repeatability and feasibility of the proposed process are investigated and shown to provide large flexibility of choice on the printed structures, materials used, transfer procedures, and targeted substrate geometries. By integration with standard fabrication processes, the described technique offers a great potential for the development of next‐generation multidimensional/multi‐material micro‐nano‐technologies.

Preparation of different conjugated polymers characterized by complementary electronic properties from an identical precursor

“…Afterwards, we delaminated the dielectric and the organic semiconductor from the glass slides by slowly immersing them in water and recollected the films with substrates pre-patterned with gold electrodes. 59,60 After drying, an aluminium gate was evaporated on top. The ESI† describes the entire fabrication process for such devices in detail.…”

Evolution of the Microrobots: Stimuli-Responsive Materials and Additive Manufacturing Technologies Turn Small Structures into Microscale Robots

“…Besides combining different materials, the incorporation of various structures into an integrated platform could also generate a multi-responsive device. Our recent work on transfer printing of DLW structures should make integration, a previously daunting task, rather simple [181].…”