Micro/Nanoscale Assembly

Substantial research in the areas of micro- and now nano-fabrication have generated many techniques with a wide range of capabilities.  Each technique has a unique set of material and geometric capabilities. However, many of these separate capabilities are not easily integrated due to processing incompatibility and the difficulty of assembly at these size scales.  If the assembly process can be improved, new devices will be enabled by the increased ability to combine components made by incompatible processes.

Micro/nano assembly techniques can be divided into directed assembly based on techniques developed for macro assemblies and self-assembly techniques modeled on natural assembly processes.  The first approach proves slow and cumbersome at small size scales while the second requires careful design of the components and limited flexibility.  We are developing new approaches that utilize reconfigurable assembly templates to combine the versatility of directed assembly with the speed and reduced equipment requirements of parallel self-assembly.

Sponsor: USF Functional Multiscale Materials by Design

Principal Investigator: Nathan Crane

Collaborators:  George Nolas, Julie Harmon