Collaborative Research: Laser-driver Micro-Transfer Printing

Transfer printing is an emerging technique for materials assembly and micro-/nano-fabrication. Micro/nanoscale materials, such as wires, membranes, platelets, etc, are retrieved (i.e., picked up) from a growth (donor) substrate via an elastomeric stamp, and then printed onto a different (receiver) substrate. This technique can be valuable for the construction of unusual test structures for a variety of basic scientific studies, and also for advanced engineering development of systems such as stretchable/flexible semiconductor devices for structural health monitoring, image sensors, flexible display, deformable circuits, flexible inorganic solar cells and LEDs. Here, transfer printing enables integration of high-performance inorganic semiconductor materials, in ultrathin geometries, with substrates of interest, such as sheets of plastic or slabs or rubber. The resulting components are of particular value in biomedical devices such as smart surgical gloves, in biomimetic, curvilinear electronics, bio-dissolvable electronics, monitors for cardiac electrophysiology and ablation therapy, foldable electrode arrays for mapping brain activity, waterproof optoelectronics for diagnostics, and epidermal electronics for health/wellness evaluation and brain-machine interfaces.