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As miniaturization of electrical and mechanical components used in modern technology progresses, there is an increasing need for high-throughput and low-cost micro-scale assembly techniques. Many current micro-assembly methods are serial in nature, resulting in unfeasibly low throughput. Additionally, the need for increasingly smaller tools to pick and place individual microparts makes these methods cost prohibitive. Alternatively, parallel self-assembly or directed-assembly techniques can be employed by utilizing forces dominant at the micro and nano scales such as electro-kinetic, thermal, and capillary forces. However, these forces are governed by complex equations and often act on microparts simultaneously and competitively, making modeling and simulation difficult. The research in this paper presents a novel phenomenological approach to directed micro-assembly through the use of artificial intelligence to correlate micro-particle movement via dielectrophoretic and electro-osmotic forces in response to varying frequency of an applied non-uniform electric field. This research serves as a proof of concept of the application of artificial intelligence to create high yield low-cost micro-assembly techniques, which will prove useful in a variety of fields including micro-electrical-mechanical systems (MEMS), biotechnology, and tissue engineering.
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Origami Biosystems: 3D Assembly Methods for Biomedical Applications
Abstract Conventional assembly of biosystems has relied on bottom‐up techniques, such as directed aggregation, or top‐down techniques, such as layer‐by‐layer integration, using advanced lithographic and additive manufacturing processes. However, these methods often fail to mimic the complex three dimensional (3D) microstructure of naturally occurring biomachinery, cells, and organisms regarding assembly throughput, precision, material heterogeneity, and resolution. Pop‐up, buckling, and self‐folding methods, reminiscent of paper origami, allow the high‐throughput assembly of static or reconfigurable biosystems of relevance to biosensors, biomicrofluidics, cell and tissue engineering, drug delivery, and minimally invasive surgery. The universal principle in these assembly methods is the engineering of intrinsic or extrinsic forces to cause local or global shape changes via bending, curving, or folding resulting in the final 3D structure. The forces can result from stresses that are engineered either during or applied externally after synthesis or fabrication. The methods facilitate the high‐throughput assembly of biosystems in simultaneously micro or nanopatterned and layered geometries that can be challenging if not impossible to assemble by alternate methods. The authors classify methods based on length scale and biologically relevant applications; examples of significant advances and future challenges are highlighted.
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- PAR ID:
- 10074485
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Advanced Biosystems
- Volume:
- 2
- Issue:
- 12
- ISSN:
- 2366-7478
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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