Lecture-From 3-D Printing to 3-D Nanomanufacturing: Integrating Structural, Materials and Electronic Engineering with Additive Nanomanufacturing

 Prof. Min-Feng Yu

Dept. of Mechanical Science and Engineering

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. USA

B305 at 9:00am on 20th June 2011

Abstract

As a representative additive manufacturing technology, 3-D printing offers the ultimate flexibility, through a layer-by-layer digitally controlled printing process, in fabricating 3-D models and custom parts with structural and mechanical complexities that are unmatched by the traditional machining process. Current 3-D printing technology, however, can only work with some selected materials and its spatial resolution is limited to around tens of micrometers by the inherent processes and mechanism. It would be the dream of manufacturing if such a process could be extended to fabricating 3-D structures with nanoscale resolution and from a broad choice of engineering materials. This would allow the development of truly heterogeneous materials architectures that significantly maximize materials performance and broaden materials functionality by the way of nanostructuring and nanosystem integration. To get there requires the development of tools, methods, mechanisms and systems that are capable of processing materials at the nanoscale.

In this talk, Dr. Yu will discuss two “direct-write” technologies that are intrinsically capable of fabricating nanoscale structures by harnessing the stability and spatial confinement provided by a nanoscale liquid meniscus. Integrating two physical processes for materials deposition within the meniscus, one based on electrochemistry and the other on solid precipitation, he demonstrates their use for fabricating nanoscale and microscale 3-D structures with designed shapes and sizes made of a variety of metal materials and chemical compounds in ambient air environments. In particular, he will show a high density wire-bonding process that enables wire diameters of less than 1 micrometer and bond sizes of less than 3 micrometers (described in our recent paper published in Science), and processes that enable fabricating vertically grown metal wires having diameters in the range from 100 nanometers to 10 micrometers and having aspect ratios up to 1000:1 and other meter long nanowires made of unique chemical compounds. The scale-up development and some particular applications will also be briefly discussed.

Resume 

Dr. Min-Feng Yu is an associate professor of mechanical science and engineering in University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He received his B.S., M.S and Ph.D. degrees in Physics from University of Science and Technology of China, Fudan University, and Washington University in St. Louis, respectively. He is the author of over 60 peer-reviewed journal articles (with over 4000 citations) contributing to the fundamental understanding of nanoscale mechanical and electromechanical phenomenon and the involved systems. His research interests span from understanding basic mechanics and physics of materials to the nanomanufacturing of related nanoscale devices and systems. He also pioneered the development of several key technologies that accelerated the fundamental study of nanomaterials and enabled the economical 3-D nanofabrication of nanostructures, such as the commercialized nanomanipulator for scanning electron microscope and the meniscus-confined 3-D nanofabrication technologies. He holds 12 issued and pending patents on the related development.