The Mechanism and Feasibility of Self-Assembly with Capillary Force

D.P. Zhao; D. Wu; K. Chen

doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/KEM.339.234

Paper Titles

Experimental Study on the Surface Modification and Materials Removal of Ultra Thin DLC Films
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Nanometer Positioning in the Presence of Friction
p.217

Surface Optimizing Behaviour of Nano-Cu Lubricant to Tribosurfaces by Mechanochemical Process
p.223

MD Analysis on Tip Geometry Effects in AFM-Based Lithography Process
p.228

The Mechanism and Feasibility of Self-Assembly with Capillary Force
p.234

Study on Displacement Self-Sensing of Piezoelectric Actuator
p.240

Design and Fabrication of Micro Hot Embossing Mold for Microfluidic Chip Used in Flow Cytometry
p.246

Research on Flow in Microchannels with Lotus Effect Coating by Molecular Dynamics Simulation
p.252

Features of Machine Variables in Thermosonic Flip Chip
p.257

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The Mechanism and Feasibility of Self-Assembly with Capillary Force

Abstract:

This paper introduces a fluidic technique based on patterned shapes of hydrophobic self-assembly monolayers (SAMs) and capillary forces to self-assemble micro-parts onto substrates. Self-assembly is defined as a spontaneous process that occurs in a statistical, non-guided fashion. More specifically, the fluidic self-assembly with capillary force is driven by the gradient in interfacial free energy when a micro-part approaches a substrate binding site. In this paper, the mechanism of self-assembly with capillary forces is proposed. The hydrophobic-hydrophilic material system between the binding sites and micro-parts is then simulated. Finally, the surface energy of a self-assembling system in the liquid phase under different conditions is calculated. The results show that shift, twist, lift and tilts displacements are detected to be rather uncritical and the system turns out to be rather stiff with respect to such displacements. The theoretical result is supported by the experiments and gives quantitive explanations why and how the capillary force works in the self-assembly process.