Instant, multiscale dry transfer printing by atomic diffusion control at heterogeneous interfaces

Transfer printing is a technique that integrates heterogeneous materials by readily retrieving functional elements from a grown substrate and subsequently printing them onto a specific target site. These strategies are broadly exploited to construct heterogeneously integrated electronic devices. A typical wet transfer printing method exhibits limitations related to unwanted displacement and shape distortion of the device due to uncontrollable fluid movement and slow chemical diffusion. In this study, a dry transfer printing technique that allows reliable and instant release of devices by exploiting the thermal expansion mismatch between adjacent materials is demonstrated, and computational studies are conducted to investigate the fundamental mechanisms of the dry transfer printing process. Extensive exemplary demonstrations of multiscale, sequential wet-dry, circuit-level, and biological topography-based transfer printing demonstrate the potential of this technique for many other emerging applications in modern electronics that have not been achieved through conventional wet transfer printing over the past few decades.