3D, Reconfigurable, Multimodal Electronic Whiskers via Directed Air Assembly

A batch-assembly technique for forming 3D electronics on shape memory polymer substrates is demonstrated and is used to create dense, highly sensitive, multimodal arrays of electronic whiskers. Directed air flow at temperatures above the substrate's glass transition temperature transforms planar photolithographically defined resistive sensors from 2D precursors into shape-tunable, deterministic 3D assemblies. Reversible 3D assembly and flattening is achieved by exploiting the shape memory properties of the substrate, enabling context-driven shape reconfiguration to isolate/enhance specific sensing modes. In particular, measurement schemes and device configurations are introduced that allow for the sensing of temperature, stiffness, contact force, proximity, and surface texture and roughness. The assemblies offer highly spatiotemporally resolved, wide-range measurements of surface topology (50 nm to 500 µm), material stiffness (200 kPa to 7.5 GPa), and temperature (0-100 °C), with response times of <250 µs. The development of a scalable process for 3D assembly of reconfigurable electronic sensors, as well as the large breadth and sensitivity of complex sensing modes demonstrated, has applications in the growing fields of 3D assembly, electronic skin, and human-machine interfaces.