Controlled Encapsulation of Liquids

Planar lithography techniques are not effective for precise fabrication of microdevices with hemispherical shapes (17). Drop-on-demand inkjet printing of a photocurable ink is a more appropriate approach as it takes advantage of the surface tension as well as of the delivery of a well-defined ink volume. 

A drop-on-demand inlqet technique has been presented that prints onto geometrically-patterned silicon substrates. This enables the controlled fabrication of hemispherical microcapsules. The method opens new paths for controlled encapsulation of liquids into smart microsystems. 

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