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Letter

Nature Materials 5, 33–38 (1 January 2006) | doi:10.1038/nmat1532

Transfer printing by kinetic control of adhesion to an elastomeric stamp

Matthew A. Meitl , Zheng-Tao Zhu , Vipan Kumar , Keon Jae Lee , Xue Feng , Yonggang Y. Huang , Ilesanmi Adesida , Ralph G. Nuzzo & John A. Rogers

An increasing number of technologies require large-scale integration of disparate classes of separately fabricated objects into spatially organized, functional systems. Here we introduce an approach for heterogeneous integration based on kinetically controlled switching between adhesion and release of solid objects to and from an elastomeric stamp. We describe the physics of soft adhesion that govern this process and demonstrate the method by printing objects with a wide range of sizes and shapes, made of single-crystal silicon and GaN, mica, highly ordered pyrolytic graphite, silica and pollen, onto a variety of substrates without specially designed surface chemistries or separate adhesive layers.