Laser-driven noncontact bubble transfer printing via a hydrogel composite stamp
Chenglong Li, Hongyu Luo, Xinyi Lin, Shun Zhang, Jizhou Song
Abstract
Transfer printing that enables heterogeneous integration of materials into spatially organized, functional arrangements is essential for developing unconventional electronic systems. Here, we report a laser-driven noncontact bubble transfer printing via a hydrogel composite stamp, which features a circular reservoir filled with hydrogel inside a stamp body and encapsulated by a laser absorption layer and an adhesion layer. This composite structure of stamp provides a reversible thermal controlled adhesion in a rapid manner through the liquid-gas phase transition of water in the hydrogel. The ultrasoft nature of hydrogel minimizes the influence of preload on the pick-up performance, which offers a strong interfacial adhesion under a small preload for a reliable damage-free pick-up. The strong light-matter interaction at the interface induces a liquid-gas phase transition to form a bulge on the stamp surface, which eliminates the interfacial adhesion for a successful noncontact printing. Demonstrations of noncontact transfer printing of microscale Si platelets onto various challenging nonadhesive surfaces (e.g., glass, key, wrench, steel sphere, dry petal, droplet) in two-dimensional or three-dimensional layouts illustrate the unusual capabilities for deterministic assembly to develop unconventional electronic systems such as flexible inorganic electronics, curved electronics, and micro-LED display.