Year: 2011
Type: article
Abstract: Microfluidic technology has revolutionized the control of flows at small scales giving rise to new possibilities for assembling complex structures on the microscale. We analyze different possible algorithms for assembling arbitrary structures, and demonstrate that a sequential assembly algorithm can manufacture arbitrary 3D structures from identical constituents. We illustrate the algorithm by showing that a modified Hele-Shaw cell with 7 controlled flow rates can be designed to construct the entire English alphabet from particles that irreversibly stick to each other.
Source: Physical Review Letters
Institution: Harvard University
Language: English
Subfield: Biomedical Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funder: National Science Foundation
OpenAlex ID: W2084275145