Article

Researchers at Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, ETH Zurich, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, National University of Singapore, and Koç University have developed an optofluidic 3D microfabrication technique. The method uses two-photon polymerization combined with light-driven fluid flow to assemble microstructures from various materials, including metal nanoparticles and quantum dots.

A polymer template is created, and a localized thermal gradient induces fluid flow to transport particles into the template. Assembly rates of 10⁵ particles per minute were reported. The technique supports a broad range of materials and has applications in microfluidics and robotics, enabling the fabrication of complex devices.