Thin Film Stress Driven Self‐Folding of Microstructured Containers

Abstract

Tiny boxes: A highly parallel, low-temperature process allows the self-assembly of hollow, cubic microcontainers with patterned faces that can encapsulate objects within. The process is based on the self-folding of lithographically patterned cruciforms and exploits stress inherent in thermally evaporated thin films to drive the assembly of the microstructures, which are on the order of 50–500 µm. The assembly occurs in water at 40–60 °C. Supporting information for this article is available on the WWW under http://www.wiley-vch.de/contents/jc_2296/2008/smll200800280_s.html or from the author. Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.