Shapeable Material Technologies for 3D Self-Assembly of Mesoscale Electronics

Electronic devices and their components are continually evolving to offer improved performance, smaller sizes, lower weight, and reduced costs, often requiring the state-of-the-art manufacturing and materials to do so. An emerging class of materials and fabrication techniques inspired by self-assembling biological systems shows promise as an alternative to the more traditional methods that are currently used in the microelectronics industry. This spatial self-assembly process offers the possibility of improved performance while reducing overall manufacturing complexity of devices and components by harnessing the relative ease in which it can produce mesoscopic 3D geometries. These benefits can lead to tighter integration, reduced costs, and ultimately even small, autonomous robots fabricated from a single wafer. To better understand the technology, existing work in this research field is reviewed with regard to the mechanisms involved in the 3D self-assembly, the materials that facilitate it, and the devices that can benefit most from their implementation.