Thin Film Stress Driven Self-Folding of Microstructured Containers

A study was carried out to demonstrate a straightforward and versatile strategy to fabricate lithographically patterned, hollow microcontainers at low processing temperatures. The process is flexible, as in addition to controlling size, materials, and porosity, the resulting structures can be folded in opposite directions based on the film orientation within a trilayer hinge. Additional traits, such as Faraday cage behavior and magnetism, further enhance the versatility of the microcontainers. The study found that the Cr/Cu/polymer combination utilized is just one of many thin-film combinations that will be useful for on-demand self-assembly. It also suggests that the method can be adapted with other material and dimension combinations to fabricate even smaller containers for applications such as device packaging and for the construction of 'smart' containers with enhanced functionality and those with on-demand, reversible opening and closing capability.