Fig. 1: Concept and schematic of the fabrication process.
From: Pick and place process for uniform shrinking of 3D printed micro- and nano-architected materials
a The problem in conventional direct heating method that results in the undesirable distortion of the region pinned to the substrate (indicated in red). Tilted-view SEM images of as-printed (before shrinking) and post-processed (after shrinking) structures. Schematic of the proposed fabrication process. b Spin-coating of PVA on the original substrate. c 3D printing on top of the PVA layer. d Dissolving the PVA layer and collecting the 3D structures with a membrane filter. e Transferring of the 3D structures to receiving substrate. Optical micrograph (inset) shows the top view of the transfer of the 3D structure using two microneedles. f Heating of sample to achieve uniform shrinkage.
